I was rifling through the San Diego Reader recently in search of my favorite crossword puzzle when I came across this real life ad:

After immediately taking a picture of it to text to my friend Jenny and upload on Facebook, I began to make notes in my iPhone about our society’s troubling obsession with mobile devices.

Granted, the last time I actually looked for work in the Reader I was searching for the kind of job that I could quit guilt-free when the summer ended, perhaps to be replaced by someone from a prison to work program.  So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that there aren’t many ads in this publication with taglines like, “Do you like to do research in the field in which you earned your Masters?”

But seriously, “Do U Like 2 Text?”!?  I was under the impression that it was hard to find jobs of any kind right now; I think employers can afford to have slightly higher standards.

Maybe crime shows falsely misled me about the prestige of the position, but I always pictured court reporters as important-looking ladies sitting at the front of a trial, shooting looks at the shady defense attorney when he yelled, “Strike that from the record!”  But this hussy with hoop earrings and a tank-top, chatting with her BFF?  She should be making me feel too old to shop at H&M while she rings up my blazers, not transcribing critical court dialogue!

Who thought this would be the best way to attract bright, capable candidates?   “Gee, how do we target young girls whose only qualification is that they like typing grammatically incorrect sentences, and don’t want to do anything, you know, ‘too hard’?  Wait, I’ve got it!”

Okay, so technically this is not an ad for an actual job as a court reporter, but rather for a program to learn how to become one, so the objective is probably more to find tuition payers than exceptional minds.  This doesn’t make it any less scary to me.

What does it say about our society that this institution basically thought its best marketing angle was to reassure young people that they won’t be challenged, and that their compulsive phone use is an asset?

This ad from 1965 for the same type of program manages to give young women more credit than the one from 2013, which is sort of unsettling:

This ambitious professional would NEVER wear a tank top to her “Exciting Career”

Don’t you think that this woman would be insulted by an ad whose underlying message is, “Are you neither smart nor ambitious?  Have we got the opportunity for you!”?  I think she would consider the woman in today’s ad, who is probably texting an Instagram of a puddle instead of making eye contact, rude.

But alas, today our phones rule our lives, and while they are wonderful, when used incorrectly, they also enable us to think less, have less meaningful interactions, and feel somewhat entitled to an effortless life.  So tank-top texting chick is now the new standard, not just the most boring girl at the bar, and apparently our educational institutions are embracing that.

My first reaction to this ad was horror, but then I thought, “U no wut? I DO like 2 txt!”  If you don’t, you better get with the times.