From Seinfeld to Snapchat

Yada, Yada, Yada

Throughout the 1990s people all over the world stopped whatever they were doing on Thursday evenings to check out the exploits of four New Yorkers. The lives of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer played out before our eyes and created as many pop culture references as it did laughs. Dubbed “The Show About Nothing,” Jerry and the gang would spend every episode of Seinfeld doing, well, nothing. They talked, they ate, they poked at other people — they lived their lives the same as most Americans. At least, Americans living on the Upper West Side of New York City.

I spent college and the beginning of my adult life watching Seinfeldreruns in syndication. I’ve probably seen every single episode at least once. Most I’ve seen so often that I can mouth the lines along with the actors. Especially when the line has been immortalized—like “yada, yada, yada.” It’s a pop-culture staple.

The running joke of this classic episode is that George is dating a woman who uses “yada, yada, yada” to represent ellipses in a conversation.

“So, I was on Third Avenue, minding my own business,” she explains, “and yada, yada, yada, I got a free massage and a facial.”

George enjoys the abbreviated conversation until she says, “my ex-boyfriend came over late last night and yada, yada, yada, I’m really tired today.” Trying to figure out what’s going on, George does what he usually does and heads to Jerry’s apartment for a pop-in.

The Yada Yada — SeinfeldI was watching this episode on TBS a few years ago, and, like most people these days, I was dividing my attention between TV and Twitter. During the episode I noticed that Cameron Strang, founder of Relevant Magazine, tweeted the following:

As Cameron explained, the show is built upon the “pop-in.” The gang all pop in on each other to share what’s going on in their lives at that moment. They run into each other on the street, at the coffee shop, and they constantly talk about, well, the yada, yada, yada of life. Cameron was right: the show wouldn’t really exist today, because instead of having to run into each other or stop by a friend’s place to share our lives, we now use our phones and social media.

In the Seinfeld era, which really wasn’t all that long ago, telephones were restricted to physical locations and when we called, we hoped someone was there to answer. Today, we call a person directly and know that they are there to receive the call — whether they answer or not is a different story. But in reality, we don’t even make phone calls anymore. We text. We tweet. We email. We Snap. The pop-in has gone digital. So what happens to the yada, yada, yada?

Yada, Yada, Yada In A Post-Seinfeld World

Social media tends to get a bad rap. We constantly hear how each Snap or text deteriorates our ability to have real, meaningful conversations. But the truth is, they’re just the new medium we use to be social.

Social media isn’t technology, it’s the medium by which we are social.

Our Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds and even our text messages are all mediums we use to connect socially. Our phone’s contact list is on equal footing with our friend lists and follower counts. They’re all the latest tools that we use to communicate the yada, yada, yada of our lives.

Humans are hardwired to be social. We’re constantly looking for the newest way to connect with our friends and family members. Currently it comes in the form of tweets and texts. During the Seinfeld era it was the face-to-face pop-in. In the 50s it was the telephone. Every generation creates a new way to communicate with each other and at the same time people from the previous generation decide the new way will ruin humanity’s ability to communicate.

Time Magazine published an article in 1959 titled “Voices Across the Line” that explained the latest uses for the newly popular home telephone:

Millions of Americans pick up the telephone to get the weather or the correct time, shopping news, stock market quotations, recorded prayers, bird watcher’ bulletins, and even (in Boston) advice to those contemplating suicide. Teen-agers could hardly live without the telephone — and many parents can hardly live with it. Twisted into every position — so long as it is uncomfortable — teen-agers keep the busy signals going with deathless conversation: “What ya doin? Yeah. I saw him today. Yeah. I think he likes me. Wait’ll I change ears. Whaat? Hold on till I get a glass of milk.”

Sound familiar? Replace “telephone” in the above article with “Snapchat” or “Twitter” or any of our current social media tools and it would read exactly the same today. The previous generation was clamoring about the demise of the relationship, just as Cameron Strang now proclaims the demise of the pop-in. They all missed the point. The telephone, pop-in and social media are all tools to share very simple, basic communication with each other — to share the yada, yada, yada that makes up everyday life.

Notice what is being communicated in the Time article; it’s the same kind of thing we text and Snap today. In fact, it’s not really any different from what Jerry & co. communicated when popping in on each other. Watch what happens when I change the video from “The Yada Yada” into a group text with Jerry:

We all have a basic need to be connected with other people. Sometimes that need to communicate expresses itself in deep, thoughtful conversation, but most of the time our conversations are made up of yada, yada, yada. There isn’t anything significant about calling someone an anti-dentite (who really likes going to the dentist?), but what is meaningful is the simple act of sharing our lives with our closest friends.

Snapchat and other messaging services are insanely popular not because of the perceived anonymity they provide, but because they offer us a new way to share our lives with people. While watching Seinfeld and scrolling through Twitter, I discovered someone else experiencing the same moment I was, and we shared the yada, yada, yada of that experience. Through the current social medium of Twitter, we conversed about the episode and briefly shared that moment together.

The Future Of Yada, Yada, Yada

Cameron Strang was right, the magic of Seinfeld wouldn’t work today. The show about nothing was special because it perfectly captured the culture of the time. Today it would feel foreign because of the current mediums we use to share the yada, yada, yada. The show Selfie tried to depict our current communication better than anything has in a long while, but was canceled before it could really gain any momentum.

We don’t need television to show us how to share the yada, yada, yada; we already know how to communicate with each other. When a new social tool comes along we tend to figure out how to use it pretty quickly, much to the chagrin of the previous generation. Our need to share life with other people hasn’t changed in the digital age. It didn’t go away with the invention of the cell phone, just as it didn’t go away when the land-line telephone was created. The technology changes but the communication stays the same.

I don’t know what the next big social media trend will be just as I don’t know what the next Seinfeld will be. Though I’m not sure those things really matter. What does matter is that we continue to share the yada, yada, yada of everyday life with those that we care about. I don’t foresee that changing any time soon.