I don't know, really. Sometimes it seems like I could pount the pavements of the city for the rest of my life, buying things I will never use, window-shopping for things I will never need, laughing at people dressed in things I would never wear. But sometimes I hate the city. The noise, the dirt, the unjustified condenscending attitude.
I guess it part of my nature. Both my parents come from the country, but both have spent a lot of their lives in cities. My Dad even lived in London once. It makes me laugh to think of him trying to navigate the tubes.
You see my Dad is what I like to call "Old skool". Don't worry if you don't know what "Old skool" means, since no one really knows what it means anyway. It is a phrase created to be infinitly versitile, and therefore, int means nothing, and everything.
My definition of "Old Skool" in this sense is pretty much a general ineptness when it comes to technology, as is evidenced by the painfully long time it takes for my Dad to thunder his index fingers around a keyboard, in a process I like to call "priming the explosives" due to the terrified nature of the action, as if the computer would explode instantly at the sight of a typo.
But it doesn't just mean that the concept of an MP3 player will confound the "Old Skool", it also means that he can effortlessly strike up a conversation with someone he might only barely know, if not a total stranger, and talk for hours, and other such things that people like me, a group which it is only logical to call "Neu Skool" wouldn't dream of in a fit, to use an Irish expression.
The very idea of talking to a stranger without thousands of miles of telephone cable and microwaves and sattelites and undersea communication cables scares the bejesus out of me.
So what exactly does this mean? Are we destined to become big chums with our computers, as the generations go on, and gradually become totally asocial? I know that I find it a chore to talk to someone now, and I feel exhausted just having a conversation, whereas I could spend hours glued to this damn computer screen, talking to you, by which I mean no-one in particular.
Something to ponder.
One
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Good question. It's
It's interesting to see how much texting and talking online has changed our culture, especially people in our general age group. Everyone texts. no one calls anyone anymore, and this annoys the shit out of me. I hate texting. I refuse to do it. Of course I hate talking on the phone too, I'd rather talk to someone face to face where I can tell if their words match up with what they're thinking. But that's just me.
Personally, I find it easier to talk online on IM or on forums like this than I do in person. Maybe because you have more time to formulate a witty response, think about what you're going to say? And you can say anything, people don't see you face-to-face, they don't see the actions that go with the words.
I think we're losing our in-person social skills. Which kind of makes me sad. Although, it's funny to talk to say my parents on IM because they can't communicate conversationally with text. But they can just walk up to anyone and start talking to them, no problem.
I guess I'm not like the rest of my generation though because I enjoy talking to people face to face. But that only started when I started traveling a lot. You have to learn that skill or just have a miserable time.
Humans are pretty adaptive. Put us in any kind of situation, and we'll learn to deal with it and even thrive.
I do feel depressed that we just don't communicate in real life like we used to. I feel like we're losing something.
And those are my worthless thoughts on the subject.
Nice topic though, mouth.
I agree. I abhor texting,
I've always hated the phone too, I am the person who goes out and doesn't take my cell phone along because I don't think people need to be able to reach you at all times. That's what voicemail is for. I roll my eyes at the people who walk down the street yakking it up on their cell phones instead of enjoying the world in which they are walking. I scowl at the people who can't drive from point a to point b without calling someone up on their phone. I hate that my boyfriend seems more comfortable sending me messages in video games and email than he does communicating with me in person. *stomps foot*
Sometimes I think I would have been better suited to life in say the 50's era. The man went to the office, the woman stayed home and raised the children, (insert 'authored novels" here), kept the house a nice environment, took care of herself, made the meals, baked the cookies, wore an apron and a circle skirt with perfectly coiffed hair that you had to sleep with rollers on your head to attain, and didn't have to slog away at some stupid job that's beneath her just to make ends meet.
Way to stir up conversation with you choice of topic there, mouth!
Fyn