Esperanto

So, I'm sitting in this cafe (see title for name) in the Vill, chilling w my homeboy. We have the lappies out and are participating in the past-time that's sweeping the nation: mutual exclusion. There are enough people in here for us to both socialize with, instead, we sit drinking coffee, eating pastries, and practically ignoring the real world to engage in the virtual. I'd like to say this never happens, but it happens all the time! I remember sitting side by side with an old friend of mine as we both clicked away on our laptops. After a while I'd say, hey I'm going back to my apartment, I'll see you tomorrow...and I left: That was a satisfying evening of chilling with this friend. Now, I could play devil's advocate and say that we knew each other so well that we didn't need to communicate, which would have been true at the time, but then...why are we i.m.ing instead of saying, oh yeah, I like that too.

Life in virtuality is fun. Don't get me wrong. I visit my fair share of social networking sites, read and send emails galore, peruse cool new places to go online...and I spend a good amount of time doing it, because for me, writing is a much easier way of communicating, but my question is: Is all this virtual socialization killing my, and may others' ability to engage with people in person? Now, I'm not saying that I'm bored with my companion, no, not at all. I would have liked to have been taking advantage of $3 beers, but hey, it's all good. But something I keep hearing more and more is that people would rather socialize online than see each other. Oh whatever, so and so can -fb, myspace, twitter-me if they really want to talk. What? Really? I mean, ok, I'm guilty too, but you know...nothing beats coming out to kick it with your people. As the weather is getting warm, I find myself longing for the European way of enjoying the outdoors...in a cafe, at a river...where other people have also left their electronics at home to partake in life, the reality.

I came out on this beautiful day, and find myself in a cafe...with other people, on their laptops. I wanted to go to the park. For the record, I'm not saying that the whole world is now filled to bursting with people who cannot socialize away from a screen, I'm just wondering, what are we losing by doing this? Is this going to come back and rear its ugly head at us, like I suspect the use of headphones will? Believe me, my generation is probably going to go deaf early. Thank you Walkman. What is the lasting impact of this age of digital communication?

As I sip my coffee and ponder these lines, all these other thoughts are coming to mind about handwriting, letter writing (an art form in its death throes) and other modes of communication that are so...instant. What are we doing?

~Enev Be~