Meaningful Connections

Chop Suey by Edward Hopper

I know I said I was taking a break from my normal rambling posts, but I have a bit of a break today, so I figured I'd throw some stuff out there for you all to think about.

For the past week or so, I've been acutely aware of just how bad our generation is at communication. The seems pretty ironic to me, considering the fact that we are almost constantly communicating with each other via texting, email, etc.

But here's the funny thing. Despite all of that (or, more likely, because of it) people are having a harder and harder time actually talking to each other. Yes, I mean in person. And even just on the phone! 

I could spend half the day texting the same people, and when I see them in person they have nothing to say. Or, when people decide to actually be social, they go to parties and start drinking before they feel comfortable enough to have meaningful conversations. And even then, they might see each other the next day and not say a word.

And god forbid anyone ever picks up the phone and actually calls anyone anymore. Why not just text an entire novel?

This past Sunday I met my friend Rebecca at a coffee shop and we sat there and talked for four hours. Not texting, not emailing, not facebooking, not doing any other activity that might fill in potentially awkward silences. Just talking. And it was so refreshing just to be sitting there with another human being interacting in a natural way. And after I left I realized just how little time I spend doing that nowadays.

All my social interaction for the past few months has consisted of going to parties, chatting on facebook, having brief conversations in the hallways, and inviting people over to play Super Smash brothers, or Monopoly, or card games. And while that's all fun enough, there's only so much you can learn about a person by becoming familiar with he way they think and react in those situations.

When Rebecca and I were in that cafe, we didn't just talk about books and boys (although they were a good chunk of our conversation), we talked about where we came from, what our families were like, our hopes and fears for our respective futures. 

Think about it. When is that last time you sat down with someone and tried to learn all you could about them in one conversation? How well do you really know the people you see every day?

Here's what I'm going to do about this in my life: I'm going to notice the people around me-- those that I see often-- and I'm going to make an effort to actually get to know them. I'm going to ask about their lives and their pasts and their dreams and their interests.

And maybe it won't work and people will just think I'm a bit of a creep. But maybe it will, and maybe all these connections will become more meaningful as a result.