Nerdicism
I'm not saying anything new when I mumble about my generation as the e-narcissists.
We have blogs, journals, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and many more options where we can share our most banal thoughts and experiences. We can massively invite friends we know, and some we've never met, to events. We can talk about the solid log we just anally evacuated in 140 characters or less on Twitter. Hell, you can even post a picture!
Certainly, I must realize that even I am not immune. Not immune, but stubbornly behind in trends, at least. I don't have a MySpace or a Facebook. I stick to the first, Livejournal, even though most friends of mine have moved on to other things. Things where you can take quizzes like "Pregnant or beer gut? See if you can tell the difference in these 10 pictures of women!"
I don't always realize the extent of social networking. A wake up call will dial my number occasionally and scream at me. At 3 am. Hilary Clinton, who I am having a sleepover with in my twisted reverie, throws the ringing phone at me. I answer, and the phone squawks, "HELLO IT'S FACEBOOK. THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOUR COUSIN WROTE ON MY WALL?!"
(Btw, the answer to the cousin thing is always "yes!")
I got a wake up call a few months ago. I feel okay writing it because I'm not sure if he would remember anyway.
It took nearly an hour to find parking that didn't cost money in the clubs and drinking district on a Friday or Saturday night. A friend and I parked about three blocks away, in front of a house that had been converted to a medical office of some kind.
By the time we get to the bar where our friend is, it's 1:45am. The bouncer wouldn't let anyone else in. We waved in the window at our friend who was finishing up an improvised Foosball tournament.
He motioned for us to wait outside. We did. A bunch of people were on the sidewalks, milling about and chatting with friends, getting ready to go home, or to finish their drinking and partying in a more private location.
When our friend finally joined us, we asked him about his game and his friends. Who won, how close was it. We bitched about the parking.
Then it became very awkward and uncomfortable. My Foosball friend brought up Facebook. This wasn't the first time he had scolded me on my lack of Facebook. THIS time, however, he was drunker. After some awkward conversation and my excuses and his scolding, he basically offers an ultimatum. (I doubt he remembers it or saw it the way I did.) He tells me he won't invite me to any social gathering unless I get Facebook. I tried to be polite. A huge flaw of mine. I never called him again. Here I am, months later, writing about it in a blog like a big ole whiner.
But really, have you ever heard something so ridiculous? Now, my own stubbornness is certainly not a virtue in a stupid situation like this.
There was another issue tagged on to that and my friend would never understand nor even be aware of it. I had so much difficulty with him and his friends when I first became single. Of course, it's been a long time now, but in the beginning of my new found freedom, I hung out around his sausagy buddyfest a bunch. They made me feel horrible. I don't think it was intentional. On the contrary, I think they felt they were being friendly.
Let me explain the problem. The guys he hung around asked me to provide them with other single women. I have female friends. Just not many. So I exaggerated and said I'm a meat magnet. Then, all these guys, just start talking about what a weirdo I am. When I was some other guy's girlfriend, I never had to answer requests like this. In fact, I was practically invisible, except for the occasional pop culture discussion or penis joke.
So, we didn't exactly mesh well. I had another problem where I unfortunately lacked tact. Once, one of these friends mentioned hanging out again later in the week and invited me along.
I said what was on my mind. It was something like this, "You want to hang out? Again? This week?" with what I'm sure sounded like the snobbiest most incredulous tone ever.
The Foosball friend explained my antisocial tendency to this guy, but seriously... At the time, I remember my thought process. It was a I-put-in-my-socializing-time-already, now why would I want to do it again? Don't you people get tired of one another?
Yes, I know. Lovely.
So what's the point of writing this months and months after it happened? I'm not really sure. I wonder sometimes if we really were growing apart already, or maybe, it's just very rare to be able to hang out with a large group of guys as a single chick who doesn't really even want to hear the word 'relationship.' A little background: I've always had at least one or two close guy friends. My bros. But when I was first single, these people who didn't know me as well kept talking about and accusing me of dating/being in love with my close guy friends.
I get tired of explaining myself to strangers. Maybe that's why I suck at social networking.
We have blogs, journals, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, and many more options where we can share our most banal thoughts and experiences. We can massively invite friends we know, and some we've never met, to events. We can talk about the solid log we just anally evacuated in 140 characters or less on Twitter. Hell, you can even post a picture!
Certainly, I must realize that even I am not immune. Not immune, but stubbornly behind in trends, at least. I don't have a MySpace or a Facebook. I stick to the first, Livejournal, even though most friends of mine have moved on to other things. Things where you can take quizzes like "Pregnant or beer gut? See if you can tell the difference in these 10 pictures of women!"
I don't always realize the extent of social networking. A wake up call will dial my number occasionally and scream at me. At 3 am. Hilary Clinton, who I am having a sleepover with in my twisted reverie, throws the ringing phone at me. I answer, and the phone squawks, "HELLO IT'S FACEBOOK. THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOUR COUSIN WROTE ON MY WALL?!"
(Btw, the answer to the cousin thing is always "yes!")
I got a wake up call a few months ago. I feel okay writing it because I'm not sure if he would remember anyway.
It took nearly an hour to find parking that didn't cost money in the clubs and drinking district on a Friday or Saturday night. A friend and I parked about three blocks away, in front of a house that had been converted to a medical office of some kind.
By the time we get to the bar where our friend is, it's 1:45am. The bouncer wouldn't let anyone else in. We waved in the window at our friend who was finishing up an improvised Foosball tournament.
He motioned for us to wait outside. We did. A bunch of people were on the sidewalks, milling about and chatting with friends, getting ready to go home, or to finish their drinking and partying in a more private location.
When our friend finally joined us, we asked him about his game and his friends. Who won, how close was it. We bitched about the parking.
Then it became very awkward and uncomfortable. My Foosball friend brought up Facebook. This wasn't the first time he had scolded me on my lack of Facebook. THIS time, however, he was drunker. After some awkward conversation and my excuses and his scolding, he basically offers an ultimatum. (I doubt he remembers it or saw it the way I did.) He tells me he won't invite me to any social gathering unless I get Facebook. I tried to be polite. A huge flaw of mine. I never called him again. Here I am, months later, writing about it in a blog like a big ole whiner.
But really, have you ever heard something so ridiculous? Now, my own stubbornness is certainly not a virtue in a stupid situation like this.
There was another issue tagged on to that and my friend would never understand nor even be aware of it. I had so much difficulty with him and his friends when I first became single. Of course, it's been a long time now, but in the beginning of my new found freedom, I hung out around his sausagy buddyfest a bunch. They made me feel horrible. I don't think it was intentional. On the contrary, I think they felt they were being friendly.
Let me explain the problem. The guys he hung around asked me to provide them with other single women. I have female friends. Just not many. So I exaggerated and said I'm a meat magnet. Then, all these guys, just start talking about what a weirdo I am. When I was some other guy's girlfriend, I never had to answer requests like this. In fact, I was practically invisible, except for the occasional pop culture discussion or penis joke.
So, we didn't exactly mesh well. I had another problem where I unfortunately lacked tact. Once, one of these friends mentioned hanging out again later in the week and invited me along.
I said what was on my mind. It was something like this, "You want to hang out? Again? This week?" with what I'm sure sounded like the snobbiest most incredulous tone ever.
The Foosball friend explained my antisocial tendency to this guy, but seriously... At the time, I remember my thought process. It was a I-put-in-my-socializing-time-already, now why would I want to do it again? Don't you people get tired of one another?
Yes, I know. Lovely.
So what's the point of writing this months and months after it happened? I'm not really sure. I wonder sometimes if we really were growing apart already, or maybe, it's just very rare to be able to hang out with a large group of guys as a single chick who doesn't really even want to hear the word 'relationship.' A little background: I've always had at least one or two close guy friends. My bros. But when I was first single, these people who didn't know me as well kept talking about and accusing me of dating/being in love with my close guy friends.
I get tired of explaining myself to strangers. Maybe that's why I suck at social networking.