Today’s NaBloPoMo question is: Do you think you still spend the same amount of time connecting in the face-to-face world now that socializing is so easy online?
Quick and Easy – No. I spend more time socializing online now (with all the technological advancements) then I have ever spent socializing face-to-face or otherwise pre-technology era. The Man Thing constantly tells me that I should have married my computer and the testosterone carriers tell me on a regular basis that I need Computer Addicts Anonymous classes. “Mom, you need help,” is a frequent phrase in this household.
I’m a gadget girl. I love my phone, my tablet, my iPod, my computer. I have always been a gadget girl – even when there were no gadgets but the house phone on the wall and the television in the living room and the radio on the window sill.
Want to know how much of a geek I am? I took Computer Science in high school – first year it was offered – just so that I would get an hour each day to click buttons, type on a keyboard, check out how they worked. I didn’t know a damn thing about “computer science” and still don’t to this day. In high school, the only reason that I wanted to be a secretary is so that I could “play office” and be around the typewriters and copy machines and fax machines.
Even back then in the pre-technology era that I grew up in, my preference was to write a note or a letter versus speaking to someone face-to-face or even on the telephone. I have just always had a fascination with machines and programs that make our lives simpler – or are supposed to at any rate.
For me (and I’m not saying that this is for everyone because it’s not) I would just rather take my time and prepare a thoughtful email that I can make sure is perfect before sending. Every. Single. Time. that I don’t email, where I just pick up the phone and start screeching like a banshee, or dash off an email before I have had a chance to calm down and analyze the situation, 99.9% of the time I have regretted it.
I’m compulsive. So when I get ticked off and want to rip you a new one – by the time I sit down and type out every vile, disgusting name in the book that I can call you, the anger has dissipated by the time I reach the end of the email. When I’m reviewing it before hitting that almighty SEND button, common sense takes over my temporarily flooded brain and I delete everything I’ve just spewed onto the computer screen and start again. Calm(er). In control. NOT the screaming banshee on the other end of the keyboard.
Finally, I talk too damn fast. When I get excited, or I am passionate about something I am talking about, or have had just one more glass of wine than I should have – I’m a regular chatterbox that goes on and on and on … and as I get older (due to the dental issues) I find myself mispronouncing words or saying something completely opposite of what I was attempting to say, and then getting flustered and trying to back up and slow down and speak correctly.
As a result, with all these absolutely wonderful social media sites and the 2 seconds it takes to tell a friend “Hi! Been thinking about you!” is my heaven. TV Trivia Insert: I was watching an episode of Supernatural the other day, where Sam and Dean are killed and find themselves in Heaven. They move along what is called the axis mundi from one happy memory to another as they work their way towards the center to Heaven’s Garden. As Ash, a friend of theirs from Ellen’s Roadhouse (and fellow tech geek) describes it, each human soul’s Heaven is different. In Heaven, humans occupy their happy memories, reliving them in their own, separate worlds.
So what does that have to do with today’s question? In “my” Heaven, the boys would be outside playing happily, hubby would be off on a week-long fishing trip, and I would have three different computers, a wrap around desk, a plush leather desk chair, a fridge stocked with Pepsi under my desk, and free Internet for all eternity. I would never have to take a bathroom break, I would never have to get up to do anything, and I would never gain weight. My friends and loved ones would be at my fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Yeah. That’s what I call Heaven.
