We live in the digital age.
i learned how to type and play computer games before I learned how to play anything else. I grew up with a game controller in my hand playing simulation sports, war, magic games. I grew up in a world that has now collasped on top of me in every way digital. Phone, internet, work...all computer driven.
I dont hate technology by any means, I love my ipod, laptop and the luxuries it affords me in my everyday life. I dont call myself lazy. that label is for people who dont get anything done, i am efficient. I get done what I need to at the speed I want and technology lets me do that when I want. I sat at work today checking emails, typing emails, looking at invoices, listening to music, and texting two different people all while checking facebook comments that have gone on amber alert for badass this weekend.
But I am startled at how technology effects me on a day to day basis. Right down to human interaction. I deal with hundreds of customers and I manage over 20 employees on a daily basis and its amazing to see people who dont know how to simply communicate with other people. You say hello to someone and they almost look like they dont know how to respond back to you. Its not a rude thing, its a fact that they are so out of practice with the world that pure human interaction almost haunts them like analog music and dial up internet.
The craziest part of the digital age for me is the whole dating, meeting people thing. I consider myself a people person, a serious flirt, and just someone that will do anything at anytime. But as I graduated college the pool you swim in gets smaller. your friends move, you break up with girls and you work 40-60 hr weeks. But I can come home and log onto facebook and there a beautiful girl is smiling at me, one that I know on a personal level, one that I know a lot of things about, one that I can easily be in contact with. You can stay in great contact with someone that lives on the other side of the globe like you see them every day, and now because of facebook, you do. You see them grow up, you see their ex boyfriends, you know their friends that you havent met because they are tagged in photos and comments are made.
The crazy part is where you draw the line or start something out of the digital air. you text people, carry on conversations every day, through out the day but sometimes you have gone hours without hearing your own voice and maybe havent heard theirs in days, weeks, ever?
I dated a girl and we never talked on the phone. All we did was text. we hung out on the weekends and never skipped a beat. Things were good but the relationship took on the brunt of some huge personal issues that I was going through with being unemployed and the house fire a year ago. but even through all of that our interpersonal relationship and communication never suffered even if we did only argue on the phone.
I met my ex girlfriend through facebook. She was the sister of one of my best friends. She saw a picture of me, asked her sister about me and it started from there. One problem...she lived in asia at the time. I friended her on facebook and we started talking. Wall posts turned into messages. The messages got longer and then we skyped. I felt like I was dating a girl for a few weeks before I had even seen her in person. It felt natural. We had a great 1st date, talked for hours and never missed a beat. We ended up dating for the next 6/7 months and she also lived in a different city.
so I guess there is some hope out there in the thin air of your cell phone towers. Some how enough electricty can pass through a text or phone call. you can be turned on by a photo of a girl you hardly know, you can have a conversation now with a person and never know what their voice sounds like. Love, affection, desire comes in many forms. I have to thank technology for helping me find a little bit of all those things in my life.
But no matter how much things appear on paper its the real thing that has to click. you'll know it too, the 1st time you meet someone, make real eye contact with them, touch their skin, taste their lips. It all clicks or it doesnt.
Its cool to know it can start from anywhere out there
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