We’re not Anti-Social, Quite the Opposite In Fact

We’re still social, technology just changes how we socialize

Amen! I still hear from lots of people about how those people on Facebook or Twitter just walk around looking at their phones all day, the world has become so unsocial and unfriendly.

BS!

A couple of weeks back I got to spend some time back in Ohio for a long weekend. I spent over 20 years of my life living there, and some of the people that I still consider my closest friends live there. For the first time in 2, or more, years I got to actually be with those close friends and enjoy their company. No, social media could never replace that, but I don’t live there anymore, and I don’t get the chance to interact in person nearly as often as I would like.

But, you know what made the in-person interaction even better? The fact that over those 2 years, I haven’t lost touch with them mostly thanks to social media! It’s all that new-fangled technology that allows those relationships to continue to flourish and remain tight. When I finally did get to see these folks, we just picked up right where we left off, because over the last two years, we’ve been able to share what’s happening on Facebook, see photos on Instagram, text, and share all sorts of things with each other. We haven’t drifted apart the way we would have had this been 10-15 years ago. I freaking love that!

So yeah, when I’m traveling for work, or even during this time when I’m in transition to Oregon while my wife is already there, and I’m eating dinner out, I’m looking at my phone most of the time. Because that’s where my friends are when they can’t be at dinner with me. How does interacting with my friends using the tech available to me make me anything but social? What am I missing out on other than listening in on other people’s conversations at dinner?

Although, the little girl who was at the pizza place the other night telling her grandfather all about the movie The Tooth Fairy, who apparently does not posses an “inside voice”, was quite entertaining, I must say. Her mom didn’t seem to find it as entertaining, she turned bright red when she realized that half the place was now listening to her daughter… 😉

See, I didn’t miss out as that was happening around me, I saw it, enjoyed it, and continued to check out what my friends were up to, wherever they were at that moment. I was multitasking socially! Now excuse me, I’ve been teaching today and I need to catch up with what’s happening in my friends lives.

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