I do a lot of driving to and from school, and as a result, I have a lot of time to just sit and think. I will tell you I have some strange thoughts while I’m on the road. During rainy days, I’ve probably had every thought there is to have about windshield wipers
Well, today I had another one of my long drives, and at some point on my way to school I became incredibly angry. I realized:
What happened to the lost art of conversation?
No one really just talks to each other anymore. Everything has gotten so incredibly passive. It’s a link –to-an-email-to-a-phone-number-to –a-text-message-to-Go-knows-what-else. Where does a real “hello” fit in? It’s basically gotten to the point that when I do have good conversation with people I’m so cracked out on joy it’s unhealthy. I’d probably pass up dinner and dancing to fuck the brains out of the first person to offer a satisfying in-person dialogue. Where did we go wrong as a society?
Example A: Instant messaging. Maybe I’m just not cut out for all this technology business because I’d rather be tapping away at a dusty typewriter or even scratching with a quill. But I just hate it. My issue is that I can’t lower my standards from those of normal conversation, yet there are the awkward pauses. So while a “normal” person by today’s standards can type something on the screen and wait twenty five minutes for a response, my reaction is “why aren’t they responding? was it my tone of voice?”
Yes, tone
I think about my tone of voice over instant messenger.
Because I just can’t help it. I can’t change my mode of behavior. So the entire process of talking to someone online becomes a torturous game of me struggling to adapt to the situation and failing miserably. Because I’m old-fashioned in ways an eighteen year old really shouldn’t be.
I’m just upset with the way things are going, the way no one can make eye contact anymore, myself included. The way we are all so connected yet we choose the most passive options possible to contact each other. There should be a national turn off your fucking cell phone and talk to someone day.
People think I’m self conscious because I mess around with words a lot, I edit what I say, but its just that I actually care what’s coming out of my mouth. I care enough to not abbreviate every other thing and to actually laugh at your jokes. When I ask someone how their day was I mean I want to know what they did, how they felt, did they love, were they mad, did they fall flat on their face on the pavement? I want to know! It an honest question! But somehow our language has been dumbed down as to be meaningless. I’ll continue this rant later, or probably just delete it.