When is it appropriate to socialize with others and in what context? Is it weird to say good morning, good afternoon, & good evening? I'd this one ex-boyfriend that insisted that it was ludicrous to think that people actually meant those words. On a side note, this was a tumultuous human being that also lacked skills for adjusting in society so it is random for me to adhere to such negative insights; however, for the sake of this post let's discover those boundaries. How many social interactions does a person have on a daily outside of social media and dating applications? For instance, this piece I'm writing took place at a local small Starbucks. I can tell you that I only spoke to the cashier. Now that I think of it, there were at least twenty opportunities to have social interactions with others. Well, I chose to interact with my ego. That way I'd remain focused on this creative writing piece. Remember when you were a child and your family instructed you to not talk to strangers? The gestures mentioned above go back historically in literature so I guess there's no real way to pinpoint who started the epidemic of greeting complete strangers but I do know that it seems conflicting today.
I wonder who even started such an anomaly where complete strangers would pass each other and decide to engage in a brief interaction. I don't find it intrusive but I do find those words can be inviting. The fact that I'm questioning the notion of people making a gesture of kindness or good will throughout the day is definitely random but worth exploring. Obviously, I'm totally poking fun at social interactions. I mean to say that we live in this matrix now where the majority of social interactions are mainstreamed via internet. If you need proof just look at your surroundings! Don't be surprised if sooner or later technology will evolve to a point when we pass someone they will receive an emojied response directly above their heads. Hmmm...I do like this evolutionary idea hashtag I own the copyrights to this hypothetical scenario but I'm willing to split the proceeds if any IT savvy techs want to collaborate. Imagine that would save me lots of trouble with interactions. I could somehow see a bar that classified a person prior to deciding to actually invite them in any sense into my life.
Could you imagine a huge like or dislike floating like a holograph or halo in that sense? What if you didn't have enough posts? Would that mean that a person's reputation in society was somehow categorized to be alienated from everyone else until that person reached a status quo that was reflected in their online persona? Are we teaching children that if you Catfish a fake social profile that you will appear to be fulfilled? Don't think that Colleges/Universities along with the work force are currently not reviewing our online personas prior to accepting or hiring perspective candidates because they are. You would think that would stop some people from posting their daily dirt but I digress because then I too would be a hypocrite. The real question is how did our emotions become so marketable for big business to exploit? When did humans need attention towards their emotions so that we can all feel validated and/or be successful in life? So maybe I might have engaged in too many Sims gameplay for a lifetime as if my anxiety of socializing isn't already complex enough.
When is it the appropriate time to engage with people now that we're all connected? I know that if someone sees me writing on my laptop or with headphones perhaps that's not the best time to come socialize with me or anyone else in that situation. I mean if there's a friend sitting with me at a bar or restaurant and they're on their phone I feel weird trying to socialize with them. Why? Well, what happens is that I wind up going through my phone and/or find some random stranger to talk too. My friend can't blame me either since I figured that I wasn't as important to socialize with since they rather handle what they have going on. Overtime, I began to notice a trend everywhere I go. There are always people with smart phones texting realtime conversations meanwhile they're surrounded by people. It is rare that anyone would even think to send an actual letter to a friend or leave their devices behind to enjoy realtime conversations. I mean we're all guilty of this in some way. It makes me think back (as if I'm that old lol) to when I was a young child and how my mom would yell at us to come sit at the dinner table as a family and ignore the tv and/or any electronic devices so that we could actually have a meaningful "family dinner". I guess it comes down to parenting but still it is sad that children no longer go outside to play unless they're engaged in some sort of app like Pokemon go. I don't see kids playing knock-knock zoom-zoom, freeze tag, hide and seek. Do you?
In conclusion, I guess inadvertanly by writing this I'm questioning the awareness to how we are disengaging ourselves from daily interactions outside of social media and this is creating an alienated society. This time we can truly say that the world is 24/7 online. With that said, challenge yourself to see if you can go one complete week without using any of the following: Youtube, text messaging (Unless you are meeting up with someone and you have to coordinate those details. Also unless it's your family because it can be an emergency and I don't want that karma) Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, GPS, Roleplaying games, Tinder, Wiki fact checks (There are books at the library) etc then please comment on what happens if your world ends or if you feel more or less connected with others. Also visit this article, "The Dangers of Social Media on Your Mental Health" it does a superb job analyzing the ramifications of social media will providing actual ways to survive offline even support for those that are addicted. As always, stay blessed.
FYI - I actually did run into a lovely new girlfriend that I hung out with briefly this passed New Years 2018' soooo real life interaction did take place but I'm not surprised since this is Baltimore (Shmalltimore) that I reside in so there's that and I did have my social devices out. I also ran into my amazing musician friend from Halloween Tres.
