Luddites: the original "Rage Against The Machine"
I know I’ve been stressed lately because I’ve been drinking a lot of margaritas and glasses of wine lately. Let’s face it, I’m so out of it. I try to keep up, but I am technologically-deficient, socially-networkingly dumb, and just plain out of touch. I don’t GET IT. I’m like that ninety-year old grandma who is learning how to navigate Facebook for the first time and truthfully, I really don’t get the new FB ‘Time Line’ profile at ALL.
All my friends complain about it: “Contact me via Facebook!”, “Didn’t you see my Instagram?”, “I texted you 5 whole minutes ago!”
I’m terribly hard to get a hold of. (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, but you all understood what I meant, which means our collective English grammar must be going to the doghouse. I digress…) There is a reason for this…
Does this picture mean "Like" or "Up Your Ars"?
When I turn on Facebook, I am sometimes overwhelmed. It’s like having 700+ people you’ve met ever so briefly asking you to pay attention to them. And as much as I do think Facebook is great in order to keep in touch with people who live farther away, I can’t go to every theatre opening, attend every baby shower, or send everyone a birthday card. I feel like I’m being an awful friend. An awful ‘virtual’ friend.
Virtual friend: As good as a bad Christmas novelty gift.
Anyway.. why I’m so ‘hard to get a hold of’ is because… in 2004, when cellphones were the norm and texting was new, I went over to my friend “Luke’s” house for dinner. He had made Korean potato pancakes and I had made blackberry cobbler. (BTW: It wasn’t a romantic thing, no! We were just friends and still are ‘just friends’. Really.) Anyway, we were enjoying a glass of wine when his phone rang. He walked over to it.
“Go ahead and answer it,” I threw over my shoulder as I cracked open a magazine. “I’ll just wait until you’re done.”
“No,” he looked puzzled at me. “I was going to turn it off.”
“Why?” I had asked incredulously.
“Because,” he slowly started, “I have company.”
“Company? Who, me?”
“Yes, you!”
“So?” (I’m still baffled.)
“Because,” he explained evenly, “I said I was going to have dinner with you, and I’m having dinner with you. When it’s their time, I’ll talk to them at that time.”
And I sat there for the first time, realizing what undivided attention was. And it was such a feeling of respect towards me, that I knew I wanted to incorporate that in my life.
I can’t be everyone’s friend, but I can be to the person breathing in front of me in real time. And that is why I turn my cell phone off. Often.
Oh My God!
I thought I was the only ‘weirdo’ who absolutely loathed that!
There is nothing worse than going out to a restaurant or making time to be with friends and everyone else is on their phone! Or kids that have to take their game consoles! Aaargh! It is so damn rude!
And don’t even get me started on that horrible new Facebook Timeline thingy…
Unless we create our own rules and self-filtering strategies, social media will feel overwhelming. It’s a lot of work and sometimes I prefer to turn it all off sometimes. But people don’t know how to do this when they’re having dinner or in a didgeridoo class (a recent experience of mine). This boy, Luke, sounds awesome. Single?
My relationship with FB isn’t personal enough to provoke complaining and I don’t get why people are so emotional about it. First World Problem, I guess.