Relationships and the Internet Age

It took an article written by Ashton Kutcher to make me realize it. Well, I guess I've always known it, but it's never been brought to my attention like it has now.

Romance is dying. Ok, let's not jump to extremes now. Not dying, but changing.

I've been raised in a society thinking that asking girls out online or over the phone is cowardly. It's been implanted into my mind that any other way besides face-to-face in real time is unacceptable. We live in the age of Facebook and Twitter now. All means of communications basically run through them.

She said yes.

This goes against everything that society has drilled into my brain. The comments following the picture were all in favor of this calling it "adorable" and "beautiful". I'm sitting here thinking "Does this actually work?"

Do you realize how easy a guy's life would be if all hardships in starting a relationship worked all the time through the internet? All those hours, days, maybe even weeks thinking of how to ask a girl out would vanish. All those lines we run through our heads the moments leading up to the actual asking out of vanish. All those heart-beating seconds that seem like an eternity waiting for the girl's response as you awkwardly look at her vanish. Instead, you type a few clever lines and sit in your seat as your stare at your computer screen in anxiety.

Flirting has now been replaced by e-flirting. Include that happy face at the end of a text. Play the right words in the right order. E-flirting makes the world take notice. Anyone can see on their news feed those playful, cute remarks two people exchange. But flirting in real life cannot truly be replaced. The whole world isn't there to take notice. It's more intimate. Those awkward glances at each other. Only the two people involved truly take note of it. Sure there could be a few people around who notices the behavior, but it's not flaunted on one's news feed for all to see.

I refuse to believe in these relationships forming over the internet. There's no real hard work put into it the way doing it face-to-face takes. Of course, I'm no expert in relationships. But I suppose I can put in my two cents.

Haha and Internet Talk

"Haha" has become the new "lol".

There's always those times you just use the term "lol" to fill in space in an online conversation. They don't mean anything. It used to mean "laugh out loud", but now it's just there like a punctuation mark. Actually, scratch that. Punctuation marks serve a purpose. Well, now that I think of it, "lol" can be used to lighten the mood of a message.

"Sorry I ate the last Hot Pocket in the fridge lol"

The sentence can function properly and deliver the same message without the "lol'. I know it's not only me who thinks this way. I had talks about this with a few people. Here's how my instant messaging lingo works:

"haha" is when something makes me smile.

"LOL" is when something makes me chuckle.

"HAHA!" is when something makes me laugh.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" is when something makes me gasp for air.

"lol" is when I have nothing else to say.

But, now I've been seeing "haha" in sentences when it should be "lol" in that context.

"Sorry I just ate the last Hot Pocket in the fridge haha."

I know I'm overreacting, but I actually use "haha" when something is amusing. Not to fill in space. That has been "lol"'s designated role.

I promise to post up something better next time. I wouldn't call this a good post, but just something I wanted to express on my blog.

Future Generations

Playing games on my phone now serves a second purpose. Besides entertaining me when I'm bored (Fruit Ninja, Scrabble, and Robot Unicorn Attack kill time like on other), it has now helped me draw back some memorable conversations (actually, it was only one conversation...making it plural makes it sound better).

Just a side note, sometimes I wish I didn't get the iPhone. It has turned my phone into an academic failure device. I can barely pay attention in lectures nowadays when I can just pull out my phone and play a computer in chess or check Facebook/Tumblr. Kids these days have it good.

That last sentence is basically what I wanted to blog about.

It was a memorable conversation I once had with some friends at IHOP. We were talking about how we couldn't wait to be crabby old men. How fun would it be to sit on a rocking chair on your porch all day and yell at the neighborhood kids to get off your lawn? Ok, it may not seem fun. But, the idea of it entertained us into a good laugh. We were supposed to have flying cars and time machines. What happened? Our biggest technological breakthrough is the iPad. We are facing an energy crisis. Our biggest news (well, on the front page of Yahoo! that is) is what Halle Berry wore. Really? We're disappointing those old guys in white coats who dreamed of time machines.

Millions of minds are connected to each other through the internet and what's the best we can come up with?

Ok, maybe that's not the best, but you get the point. We are more concerned with the latest Tweets and what our friends are up to on Facebook.

Part of me wants to hurry up with the aging process and see where my life is going to lead. I'll see what the world will become. A world of even more superficial human beings who revolve their lives around social networking? Or a utopia where we all...do good things? I don't know. I'm just waiting for flying cars.

The other part of me wants to stay young. Just the thought of passing the halfway mark in my lifespan depresses me. I'm still young. I have a long way to go. But life seems like it has been on fast forward. It seems just like yesterday I was 12 and dreaming of being 16 and in control. Ha!