No… that isn’t quite right… because if you did that, you might at least be regurgitating a meal that you yourself cooked, whereas just recycling the wisdom and humor of others is infinitely worse. It is not any form of communication at all. It is, in fact, at the very least, a form of plagiarism masquerading as interaction.
I have done posts before on the differences between blogging and FaceBooking… how FaceBook is where you go to have friends and family more or less ignore your thoughts while a blog is where you go to have hundreds of strangers tell you how frightfully brilliant you are… but the whole notion of people batch-sending cute stuff they find on the internet and imagining that they have somehow connected to people just makes me unutterably sad.
I suppose this post is a part of the posts I did a few days ago, where, with my patented blend of sarcastic pomposity and sartorial lecturing, I tried to get across the point that so often in modern times, the very rules that we invented to lubricate our social interactions often serve to make them meaningless. The pathways we created to make our conversations go more smoothly have been worn down by the traffic until they have become the walls of a maze of our own design. We walk the well-trodden path, but we no longer see the scenery or look for a new exit to take to explore someplace new.
In short, we are in a rut. Have you ever had three or four people in a row ask you the same standard question of greeting, such as: ‘how are you?’ and then suddenly the next person throws one of the other overused salutations your way, perhaps: ‘what’s new with you?’ and before you can stop yourself, you answer: ‘I’m good’.
No, this is not the end of the world. It isn’t a social disaster. But it is a glaring indication of a deeper problem. It means that, for the most part, we are able to carry on basic prefabricated conversational gambits on autopilot with no thought required at all.
Is this really a god thing?
Is conversation becoming a lost art?
I see young people who seem to be out doing something together, having a meal, or going to the movies, but there they stand, not looking at each other but rather engrossed in texting to someone else. Or at least I hope they are texting to someone else… if they are texting to the other young people with them, then this problem has gotten worse than even I suspected. And how is it not an insult to those around you that you seem to find the typed words of other people more interesting than their company? I guess maybe it is because they obviously feel the same way about you.
I am sure I have said this before somewhere in this blog, but I would rather have someone type one line to me… it doesn’t have to have proper punctuation or good spelling… I don’t even care about content particularly… just say: ‘how are you, I are fine’. That was a communication. That was a personal interaction. That sentence will mean more to me than 5,000,000 pictures of cute kittens or funny jokes or clever sayings that you ran across on your no doubt horribly interesting explorations of the world-wide web…
I don’t know where I am going with all this. I just have this vague fear that movie, Wall-E, the one about the little robot who is the last sentient thing left on Earth, will turn out to be true… that we will all end up as huge, obese lumps on floating anti-grav couches, tended by robots and machines, with our sole interaction with other people and even the world around us being made through the intermediary of monitor screens.
Monitor screens are not a magic window into a deeper reality. Monitor screens are a pale impersonation of real life. Yes, they have their place. You can find interesting things in there… like my blog, for example… but a painting of a meadow is not the same as a meadow. We can’t ever let ourselves be fooled into thinking that virtual reality is better than real reality… or why would we ever want to come back from the virtual kind at all?
Pouring My Art Out 
So I guess you won’t be following Tickle Me Tuesdays anymore when I start back up?
I never said that
I kind of hate it when I agree with you.
HA!
“obese lumps on floating anti-grav couches” – YIKES! I don’t want to be an obese lump! A pleasantly plump lump, maybe. 🙂 You make excellent points here, sir. A good reminder to all.
oh… well as you soon discover, I had to disavow this entire post due to inconsistencies in my thought processes… if you can even imagine such a thing…
Art, but what if those young people staring at the phones are actually reading your blog?
You just blew my freakin’ mind… and shot this post to pieces… because obviously, my whole plan is to have everyone on the planet read my blog all the time… and… crap… now I have to do another post…
Well, sorry for breaking this post and happy to inspire another one.
You aren’t supposed to make more work for me, you are supposed to keep me less busy so I can make plans to rule the world…
Should I stop commenting?
You know that isn’t what I meant at all.
And just so you know, the only retirement option from the minion brigade is death by James Bond… so…
I love Wall-E, but you know, we are already obese lumps of flesh, we just don’t have colour-changing unitards and hover chairs yet.
Well, who is the minion in charge of R and D???
Too busy chowing down on butter-flavoured butter.
nuff said
Oh, PMAO… I couldn’t disagree more. Those things on FB were meant to be shared. I want you to think about two things right now:
1) There’s really not that much difference between reposting pics on Facebook, and reblogging posts on WordPress.
2) I know someone who once did 9 or 10 posts of manipulated Dick Cheney pictures in a row. I know someone else who once did a post full of nothing but silly pictures of rainbow-related items/objects/creatures.
Those little quizzes and memes and silly photos are simply icebreakers. You might not want to talk to someone about politics or religion, but their favorite 1980s song? What kind of vegetable they are? Sure! And then a conversation breaks out. It’s social media. Social. There are many ways to reach out.
I think that perhaps what Art is getting at, essentially, is that communication is changing. It is going in a different direction, and very quickly, and yes something is being lost… but something is also being gained. The access to people you would never have been in contact with before, from all parts of the world… that is a wonderful thing. The ability to converse deliberately (to edit yourself), that part I feel is a bit of a loss. In conversation, we say things that aren’t necessarily that rehearsed… I think they’re more genuine. But stuff changes, and we can’t stop that change, and I don’t think we’d want to.
How I wish I could have been face to face with you when you uttered those words, to watch your rubbery lips bouncing upon one another like two male walrus fighting over the mating rights on a particular stretch of beach… little flecks of spittle shooting off into the air to catch the light as they fall like bright comets… your pink tongue flicking in and out like a groundhog who has spotted a hawk’s shadow… the lilting tones of your haunting Canadadian dialect filling the air with gratuitous ‘eys’… oh, to experience such a thing… wait… what were we talking about?
What the…
Instant semi.
yup
And that comment would be more appreciated if I hadn’t just seen almost the identical comment you left on another blog post about a ‘regular guy’ we both know… so thanks for playing you two-timing bastard.
Sorry. I have had a lot of semis lately. I was thinking of contacting my physician, but as soon as the thought crossed my mind… instant semi.
so does a semi have to last 8 hours before you have to call the doctor? And I am in a quandary, because part of me want to give you a hard time… no… scratch that… make you miserable because you have been missing, and part of me missed you being missing and is glad to have you back and want to be all ice to you.
Oh stop it, I simply can’t be around all the time, much as I want to be. And go ahead with the hard time! Or even a semi time, as it were. And on that note… sigh. I must retire, it’s now officially late and worse, the wine is all gone.
whah
I just hear: whah-hoo
Quantity over quality, maybe? I can see that, but that would be true even if memes had never existed.
Maybe. What’s a meme, anyway? Is that something you toast? Sounds like it. Mmmm, toast. I’m going to put maple syrup on some and then get hammered. Wednesday, you fickle bitch – here I come.
I think I heard somewhere that on-line conversation is heavily repressed by the ability to self-censor. Like we converse as the idealized versions of who we want to be rather than who we are, because we get to pick just such and such turn of phrase, along with the accompanying image. That it’s not us. But in reality, I wonder if who we want to be is exactly us. Now, back to that maple syrup business…
I think the appeal of online conversation is that you can go somewhere for 14 hours and come back and pick it up where it left off. You can’t really do that in real life without some amount of either guilt or hard feelings.
Well, I think that’s the point. In real life, you just say what you have on your mind, you don’t get to orchestrate the response. So what is the real us? Not sure it matters, both are versions of who we are. The truth probably stretches just enough to glue the two parts together.
I will admit that typing forces me to slow down enough to at least make sense… in person, I am a freaking whirlwind.
Bring it.
ha
but that is my definition of a friend… someone you can pick up conversations with after however long… and not using guilt… that too
I’m not saying ‘oh, gotta go, can we talk about this later?’
I’m saying person A makes a comment, and person B reads it the next day.
I am sure you are right Ed… you almost always are.
Sigh.
HA!
I am totally me… so just deal with it… if… when… either of you ever meet me, you will be flabbergasted by how exactly like me I truly am.
I have zero doubt that the on-line you is exactly the real-life you. Not so for me. In real life, I am a shapely blond with hefty breasts, a penchant for thongs, and an unhealthy appetite for west coast men who wear mysterious and slightly dated shades.
oh………
And you still get instant semis?
semi instant semis for only a semi instant… HA!
while semi-driving a semi.
He is the only guy that can get a woman semi pregnant.
I didn’t say it was easy…
But you didn’t say it was hard either… HA… I still kill me…
Oh boy… schmack!
that’s why I am the king here…
Oh, and a meme is basically a picture that has silly text on it.
I can’t even imagine a thing like that
?
sarcasm… it is easier to do in person
Oh yeah, right.
dang it
but I have two of the smarter people that I know discussing a topic that I really couldn’t care less about… so… winning?
Hard to believe, since you wrote a whole post about it.
Sheesh.
see how easy it is to fake it when you just type words… HA!
I hate when people try to get you to click and read something, says the guy trying to get you to click and read something?
I hate it when other people do it… not me… or even you… but you earned that sort of respect.
How did I earn respect? I am a charlatan.
but a good one
I stand corrected to such a degree that I might need to sit down.
Not at all. I think you’re just having a bad day. Watch an episode of Sherlock Holmes.
ok
Or, look at Not Always Right, or Art of Trolling, or Failbook.
TMI
I love your metaphor of “the-smoothing-of-the-paths-of-communication-turning-into-ruts-and-thence-into-a-maze-or-warren-from-which-we-are-hard-pressed-to-escape.” Brilliant. There’s a poem in there somewhere. I just may be the guy to write it.
I have a really bad habit (in terms of social etiquette) of answering those banal, rote interrogatives-of-greeting a bit too honestly. Or too creatively. Like:
Them: “Hey, man. What’s up?”
Me: “My sense of self loathing.”
or
Them: “How are you?”
“Lousy. How are you?”
I have been on Facebook for about five months and I believe that I am about done with it. I have SO many better things to do with my time. We all do.
Peace.
(real peace. not virtual peace.)
I like to fly in the face of convention… hence the earlier posts about telling people your whole life story when they ask how you have been
Just recently, I addressed this issue somewhere in the blogosphere but don’t remember where. If here, well, it bears repeating. About 50 years ago the advertising industry began using the word “virtually” in a way that redefined it. I read about it a book at the time. It was called a “weasel word” which allowed that the meaning was being weaseled around as in, ” Use X and your dishes will be virtually spotless.” The inference being they WILL BE spotless. If you thought they would “almost be spotless” why would you buy the product. So now a “virtual” friendship within a virtual reality is as good as, if not better than, the real deal. To bitterly parse that a bit and further discredit that concept, here is the true definition of “virtual” from 6 “virtual” sources:
almost or nearly as described, but not completely or according to strict definition.
being such in power, force, or effect, though not actually or expressly such
Almost or nearly as described, but not completely or according to strict definition:
almost the same as the thing that is mentioned
And now two of my personal favorites to put the finer point on this:
Existing in the mind, especially as A PRODUCT OF THE IMAGINATION.
very close to being something WITHOUT ACTUALLY BEING IT
See, people really need to read the fine print before they sign that life contract.
Hey, why are using me to do your dishes???
🙂
I have such delicate hands and need them for other more delicate things.
like getting the dishes actually clean versus virtually clean?
Actually, I do wash the dishes around here. My wife has a skin condition that flares up badly from certain kinds of soaps, lotions, cremes and the like. They blister up and itch her terribly so I keep her hands soft and smooth for handling other things. It’s a VERY fair trade in my book.
as long as you remember not to ever put lotion on those other things…
Coconut oil is a safe bet, is edible, almost neutral in taste, can be purchased as an organic, and is not-toxic if “applied” internally. Did I forget to mention the best part?, It is edible. It melts upon contact with the heat of flesh, is a great moisturizer for keeping things smooth and soft, well not all things soft, and doesn’t have a greasy mouth feel and washes off of uh, utensils quite readily. I am referring to using it on toast and in cooking of course.
you did have me a little worried…
Pshaw
HA!
dude… nothing slips by you… awesome tie in… bring it back home
I will bring it back to the secret lair immediately, sir!
Store it in the archives and we will put it on the wall of fame… as soon as you lazy varmints finish building it…
It’s true… they are insured just like Betty Gable’s legs…
Oh… sorry… I may have been subletting my minions out…