One of my readers has brought to my attention Scott, a guy who wears a name tag every day. Apparently, he started doing so as an experiment, and it has introduced him to the wonderful world of spontaneous human interaction. This name tag has become his front porch that says “Hey! Come on up and chat!” and people tend to be more friendly now that he has his name tag on.
This piqued my interest because I often lament the lack of spontaneous human contact that I blame on the increased use of the private automobile and developments such as strip malls and suburbs. This is especially pronounced in a place like Omaha. People have pushed each other so far from one another that the ice that needs breaking is getting thicker and thicker. The result, in my mind, is that instead of having sustainable social networks, people have compartmentalized their lives and now must resort to dating services to find suitable partners, and “networking events” - specifically for exchanging business cards - to establish business “relationships.” I can theorize so many other repercussions and repercussions of the repercussions that I’m afraid to get any farther into it.
Next time you are walking down the street, and by some miracle, it happens to be a street on which there is another person other than yourself walking in the opposite direction, try to make eye contact with that person. It can be disturbingly difficult. You may want to try one of Scott’s 52 ways to build your front porch.
Renee said,
October 10, 2004 @ 9:11 am
What a great concept!
I worry about this, too. For as much as I love the Internet, it is another tool that disconnects us from human interaction. IMO, you can see the fragmentation of communities with each ‘advancement’ in technology. In the last 40 years, that’s something that’s moved at warp speed. Few know their neighbors. Few use public transportation. I’ve noticed that people are getting to be meaner drivers. The number of lawbreakers or just plain discourteous drivers is on the rise and if you deign to tap your horn, you get a hand gesture and a mouth of words - often with kids in the backseat watching it all. Welcome future crappy drivers, here’s your lesson in how to act. People believe their rights supercede everyone else’s. At home, family members avoid each other in favor of the pc(s), tv(s), cd(s), and game cube(s). Then there’s mobile phones to answer (for every member of the house).
It’s demoralizing, really. What the answer is, I’m not sure. But Scott seems to be on the right track. When we bought a house, I baked cookies for my new neighbors the first week. It was a start. But I haven’t been that great about communicating since then. But when people don’t even want to communication with their own family, there isn’t much hope for them doing it with everyone else.
Andy said,
October 22, 2004 @ 2:03 pm
Scott seems to be a big geek to me. His front porch may be open, but I bet he has a lot of skeletons in the closet.