Because I felt I was due for a rant...
I'm wondering why I've been tempted to post more this month. I don't know what it is.
Anyway, today's topic ladies and gentlemen is the social interaction known and feared throughout the universe as talking.
And subsequently, the people who are listening.
I'm currently trying to avoid saying the phrase "Yea, that's interesting." You might wonder why, being that that is such an excellent response to any amount of spoken or written word. Well, I'll explain. I've found that whenever I do that, and I will extrapolate this to whenever anyone does this, they are simply reintroducing themselves to a given conversation, only to introduce their own topic of choice. Have you ever noticed that often times people don't even attempt to carefully streamline their stories into the conversation? Not even a "by the way" most of the time. Often times, people go straight into another story, regardless of what you've been prior saying.
This sort of trend leads me to my thesis:
The majority of conversations between people are merely a stream of unconnected or at the most weakly stranded thoughts made by both sides because both parties involved are simply attempting to get to their designated portion of the conversation.
I admit that I am not entirely innocent of this action. Rather, I think it's inherent in humanity. The state of nature, so to speak. We cling to anything we can get of our Natural Right, our total license to anything and everything. With laws and other such restraining measures, I think all humans take some relief of this need for Natural Right in any menial thing, in this case, conversation. Why not be selfish and take over the conversation, get your point across over everyone else?
Problem is, communications breakdowns are clearly evident on a social level (not societal, per se, but definitely on a social interaction level). It's part of a growing problem; people slowly disconnecting from each other. I think connections are harder and harder to find. I'm now judging whether I have good friends only in the ability to converse with them without diverting to simply feigning interest in their stories and then taking my turn to speak. With my better friends, I can carry meaningless conversations for hours, as they can all attest to. And I'd like to think that none of them are me blathering on while they stare aimlessly, or vice versa. Even with new people I've just met, you can tell when you can just sit there and hang with them, no predetermined actions necessary, and talk with them. It never has to be about anything introspectively deep, just how absurd aspects of a signpost are, for example. I've found some people like that this semester, but these interesting folk are so hard to find because the majority of them are too self-centered and focused on their individual experiences to be bothered by yours. They find their world, however meaningless, to be fascinating. This is by no means an issue; in fact, if you can find the world you live in fascinating rather than hilariously absurd like I do, all the power to you. The problem is, they can't see anything outside this shell they live in, they have no connect to the outside world.
Maybe I'm not being open-minded enough in my analysis? I'm going mostly through personal experience here. Then again, I try not to spend time with people who disinterest me. I can usually see who does that within seconds. First impression's always the best one. To the ones that do interest me, I can indeed carry conversation, and that is the best determinant in my view of meaningful connection in society.
I think that's a huge issue in speaking to people over something like AIM. No matter how hard I try, I can't talk to people on AIM for the life of me. All I say is worth absolute shit. AIM and other inventions of the sort are horrendous. I get better shit out of phone talks, and I hate talking over the phone, as it is a hassle for me. I think it is part of the reason why I certainly lost contact with people who no longer live around me. If the only way I can speak to them is over a messaging service, than clearly they won't get anything out of what I say. It's made me a firm believer that the best talks, stupid or otherwise, come in person. For me, I need the material of the outside world to let me be funny. But it's also an interpersonal thing; if you can see them, hear them personally speaking, you're already some ways there, with no conversation needed.
In short, if you can listen to your friend talk about his/her major, of which you have little interest in, and still listen, inquire, and converse in a manner you wouldn't be ashamed of later on, you've done something right, not only in your speaking but in your choice of people.
By the way, this has been brewing in me the past few months, I've been making some outside observations to make up this rant. More to come, this time about how cell phones are ruining society.
Anyway, today's topic ladies and gentlemen is the social interaction known and feared throughout the universe as talking.
And subsequently, the people who are listening.
I'm currently trying to avoid saying the phrase "Yea, that's interesting." You might wonder why, being that that is such an excellent response to any amount of spoken or written word. Well, I'll explain. I've found that whenever I do that, and I will extrapolate this to whenever anyone does this, they are simply reintroducing themselves to a given conversation, only to introduce their own topic of choice. Have you ever noticed that often times people don't even attempt to carefully streamline their stories into the conversation? Not even a "by the way" most of the time. Often times, people go straight into another story, regardless of what you've been prior saying.
This sort of trend leads me to my thesis:
The majority of conversations between people are merely a stream of unconnected or at the most weakly stranded thoughts made by both sides because both parties involved are simply attempting to get to their designated portion of the conversation.
I admit that I am not entirely innocent of this action. Rather, I think it's inherent in humanity. The state of nature, so to speak. We cling to anything we can get of our Natural Right, our total license to anything and everything. With laws and other such restraining measures, I think all humans take some relief of this need for Natural Right in any menial thing, in this case, conversation. Why not be selfish and take over the conversation, get your point across over everyone else?
Problem is, communications breakdowns are clearly evident on a social level (not societal, per se, but definitely on a social interaction level). It's part of a growing problem; people slowly disconnecting from each other. I think connections are harder and harder to find. I'm now judging whether I have good friends only in the ability to converse with them without diverting to simply feigning interest in their stories and then taking my turn to speak. With my better friends, I can carry meaningless conversations for hours, as they can all attest to. And I'd like to think that none of them are me blathering on while they stare aimlessly, or vice versa. Even with new people I've just met, you can tell when you can just sit there and hang with them, no predetermined actions necessary, and talk with them. It never has to be about anything introspectively deep, just how absurd aspects of a signpost are, for example. I've found some people like that this semester, but these interesting folk are so hard to find because the majority of them are too self-centered and focused on their individual experiences to be bothered by yours. They find their world, however meaningless, to be fascinating. This is by no means an issue; in fact, if you can find the world you live in fascinating rather than hilariously absurd like I do, all the power to you. The problem is, they can't see anything outside this shell they live in, they have no connect to the outside world.
Maybe I'm not being open-minded enough in my analysis? I'm going mostly through personal experience here. Then again, I try not to spend time with people who disinterest me. I can usually see who does that within seconds. First impression's always the best one. To the ones that do interest me, I can indeed carry conversation, and that is the best determinant in my view of meaningful connection in society.
I think that's a huge issue in speaking to people over something like AIM. No matter how hard I try, I can't talk to people on AIM for the life of me. All I say is worth absolute shit. AIM and other inventions of the sort are horrendous. I get better shit out of phone talks, and I hate talking over the phone, as it is a hassle for me. I think it is part of the reason why I certainly lost contact with people who no longer live around me. If the only way I can speak to them is over a messaging service, than clearly they won't get anything out of what I say. It's made me a firm believer that the best talks, stupid or otherwise, come in person. For me, I need the material of the outside world to let me be funny. But it's also an interpersonal thing; if you can see them, hear them personally speaking, you're already some ways there, with no conversation needed.
In short, if you can listen to your friend talk about his/her major, of which you have little interest in, and still listen, inquire, and converse in a manner you wouldn't be ashamed of later on, you've done something right, not only in your speaking but in your choice of people.
By the way, this has been brewing in me the past few months, I've been making some outside observations to make up this rant. More to come, this time about how cell phones are ruining society.