Life in General!

Unsociable Interaction!

The Indecisive Eejit33 Comments
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Photograph by Jason Howie (click for more info)

Whilst traveling home on the train tonight a friend remarked about how the simple art of conversation has died out and everyone seems to be on some kind of mobile device or other. I could only hang my head in shame, as I am one of those people!

What on earth did we do before mobile phones and technology? How did we amuse ourselves? It seems like such a long time ago, it’s hard to imagine a life without gadgets.

I couldn’t tell you the last time I read a book, well, one where I hard to turn real paper pages anyway or did a crossword where I had to actually hold a pen. I do all my research on Google and my learning on Youtube. I send mail to friends that arrives instantly and not within a week, better still I don’t even have to put a stamp on it. I meet lots of fantasic people (yes that’s you lot) without having to physically fly all over the world or even show my face. When you sit down and think about it, it’s actually pretty amazing!

Of course, as we all know, there are two sides to every coin and the sad thing is, that while we are busy interacting with whatever it is currently holding our attention online, we are sometimes neglectful of real life. I’ve seen us sometimes in restaurants, where someone pulls a funny face, someone else takes a photo and then uploads it to Facebook, and within 5 minutes the whole table is on their phone looking for a slice of the action. When did “Oh this looks like fun lets take a picture” become “There’s another one for Facebook”, that said we have taken some really funny and embarrassing photographs!

I don’t use Facebook and awful lot, well except for Candy Crush, in fact every other week I threaten to deactivate for one reason or another. I’m not fond of the security issues, the advertising or the fact that unless you have everything locked down a simple ‘like’ can send your post all over the world. In all honesty though that’s never really going to happen to me, as mine are always either very mundane or stolen and shared from someone else.

Twitter, well that’s a whole other kettle of fish. I am completely clueless, a fact that I am sure anyone who follows me can verify. If Twitter were a pool, I’d be drowning right about now.

I was however very sad to hear that Facebook have purchased Whatsapp. I would say it has to be the most used app on my phone. I even paid for it, I liked it that much, but now I have a bad feeling that something beautiful is going to become tainted and ugly. I hope I am wrong.

Could I cope without social media sites like Facebook and Twitter (blog not included)? Yes I could. Could I live without the internet?……noooo way!!

Whilst I said above I hadn’t read a book in a long time, I don’t miss it, because thanks to gadgetry and the internet I can read lots of amazing blogs and meet new people. I can find other things to stimulate my brain as efficiently as a crossword does and if required I can set down my tablet and strike up a conversation with a stranger.

There’s hope for me yet, what about you?

33 thoughts on “Unsociable Interaction!”

  1. I am able to walk away from the phone/apps for awhile, but it sometimes is my only way to connect with others. It’s too easy for me to become a recluse.

    What’s WhatsApp?

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  2. I wouldn’t want to lose the internet and have found a home with my blog. It would be extremely difficult to give up. The rest would be no big deal. I have facebook for the games mainly and twitter for the blog but outside of that I hardly ever use them or any other social media or messengers.

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  3. Personally, I no longer look at my phone whilst out and about. In fact, for the most part, I now leave it at home most days. That said, I don’t talk to many people either. I simply sit there and read. Yes, it’s not an actual ‘let’s turn the pages’ type of book, but a gadget. I used to just plug in my other gadget, the iPod, til the headphones broke :-(

    As for email, nah. Only for work related matters. Letters? Not since 1983. But I too am dismayed at the purchase of whatsapp. You just know that it’s going to be swallowed up by their messenger service. I can’t for the life of me see why they’d want it. Facebook is boring. It’s full of ‘I’m a good mommy’ and ‘oh woe is me’ posts. Twitter is not much different in that respect. It’s all self righteous claptrap when alls said and done.

    As to whether or not you’re socially active, I beg to differ. In fact, you’re miles above that of your fellow commuters. By blogging, or reading others blogs, you’re actually being more sociable than them. They’re just stuck I’m the safety bubble of the train ride home. Doing the same thing day in, day out. You, my good friend, are widening your horizons on a global scale :-)

    Can I have my candy bar now please?? Go on, can I can I can I …

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    • Ooh, you’re feeling very insightful this morning and that’s a fair point about being sociable. I never looked at it like that before, a comment after all is interaction. And you talk to me, actually yeah, poor you lol

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  5. I hear you loud and clear on this one Juls. My oldest brother is THE worst. So much so that we are actually better off emailing him even when we’re in the same room!

    I think you’ll find that if you were put in a situation where you had no access to the net, you’d cope. I had nothing available to me the whole time I was in that village in India and honestly, didn’t miss any of it. I mean, I’m kind of like you. I don’t really use the Book much and Twitter is wasted on me. If I didn’t have a blog, I wouldn’t even use the latter and I don’t think I’m using Facebook properly to help promote the blog…

    I’m not even sure what the point of this comment is anymore, sorry. So in summary, I agree with you. And I worry for kids and society in general now.

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    • It’s ok I got the gist of it lol You’re probably right, if there was no Internet we would have to cope. But I’d miss this blog and all the friends I have made mere.
      Facebook pages are way to confusing, I have one for the blog, but I don’t think anyone ever reads it, no even me ffs lol So I am sure I could also emply better promotion tactics lol

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  6. I’m always struggling to regain the list humanity of my childhood, when I could read a book in a day and call people on the real phone. Things are just so different now, but I keep pushing at it – some day I’ll discover the secret to social multifunction.

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      • Sure, I think it’s a secret technique of prioritization. What’s more important right now – your phone, or the person sitting on the train next to you? My idea is if you just keep to yourself, in some way subconsciously you tell yourself that they’re either unimportant or nonexistent. If they’re not a solitary type, I think they pick up the exact same vibe and subconsciously they think that you think that you’re better than them because you think they’re unimportant or nonexistent. I know some people who see me every day think I’m a snob because I don’t come out of my shell all too often and I don’t socialize via the normal channels because I’m busy – uh – WordPressing? on my own, where I can focus. There are some people I see every day whom I’ve never spoken a word to. Part of me feels bad about that, and sometimes I wonder if I could change that but I feel like I lack the proper motivation at times to break away from the rhetoric of “I’m here to work, so are they”. But in a social venue, and even on the lines in between (public transit, if you get me) there’s no such excuse and I think maybe in my case it would be more my introverted nature, but I want to be more extroverted. I want to relate and connect, and I’m afraid that on top of my reticence there is this crying baby of a phone that I always have on me . . . If I could put it aside without a second thought and strike up a conversation with a stranger – to have that preference – I think it would change me in a positive direction. We all strive for improvement in our lives, and in my current position there’s only so many things I still have to work on!

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  7. I use my phone often, but I also carry a book for the train.
    And I generally try to keep it in my pocket at restaurants.

    But I’m not particularly sociable to begin with, so…

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  8. I made it my New Years resolution to read more books after realising I rarely read books because of social media. I do read more, but still piss about on the Internet a lot.

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    • It’s kinda hard not to piss about on the internet though, right? I lose hours on Candy Crush and it really irritates me. My I’ll sit down for just 5 minutes turns into an hour and then I am watching wee video’s and memes and the days over! lol

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