Well, at least Bean and Brew is Crowded...

       It is day 4 here at Alderman Ave. Bokhandle, and it has, rather briefly, come to my attention that whenever I come here, Bean and Brew Coffee Shoppe is the only area of the store to be consistently crowded with people jovially socializing with one another, or simply sipping on their favorite coffee-based beverage. It’s truly comforting to know that at least one enterprise will be going out of business. Anyhow, something surprisingly notable happened to me during my trip to the Bokhandle: for The first time since I started going there, someone actually spoke to me (and without provocation)! As I made my way to my usual section, I saw it at its most crowded. Three young men were sitting in it: Tale, who is doing some (presumably) school work on this computer, Rion, who was reading, and Alsten, who was, upon my arrival, sitting in the corner sulking. I mention the state of affairs of the latter to point out the fact that, out of all the people in my section, he seemed the least like to want to speak, let alone to a stranger, and yet, he did. I was there for about 10 minutes before he did, and granted it was only about the Wifi, but still, the fact that, In this age of ever increasing technology, someone actually spoke to someone else in real life.

      And so this little gem had captivated my interest. In truth, I’m not really all that socially conspicuous, but I still fancy myself a fairly friendly person, however I find that more and more these days, there isn’t a place for my friendliness, as most people, whenever I pass them on the street and smile at them, usually just look on their phones or just tilt their heads down in general, in order to avoid eye contact or any sort of social interaction. And many a time I’ve seen a bunch of people sitting around a table and everyone is on their phone; not a single person is interacting with anyone around them. And again, in truth, I’ve fallen victim to this trap, but for the most part I fancy myself a social creature, and I can’t help but wonder that, in an ever increasing the technologically advanced world, will there ever be a place in society again for the kind of “Hello how are you” and “I’m fine thank you” that used to be so prominent, even among people my age. But then again, there are people who would argue that these days, social interaction includes the people with whom you interact on the Internet, even though you could be up to thousands of miles away or simply be next-door neighbors who never do things the old-fashioned way and come outside to say hello on the way to the mailbox. Those people would most likely also argue that the Internet has revolutionized how we can interact with one another a great distances. And I would like to point out that I feel personally that it has, yes achieved that aforementioned end, but also devolved how we interact with one another in close proximities. There surely got to be a way to ever evolve the one (long-distance communications) but not at the expense of the other (intimate distance communications).