To IM....or Not to IM....Ay, There's the Rub

Well, enough of the silly sentimental bullshit I have been spewing forth onto these pages. I feel the need to analyze, criticize, and eviscerate those issues that bother me and that I see as culturally (in)significant. You know you have been in graduate school too long when you start using parantheses to created words within/out words.

Ok, so here is my recent quandry. I have decided that I am a little tired of being online in the sense of using AIM all the time. In the last 2 1/2 months I have been online EVERY night and have stayed up into the wee hours talking to people. Granted, I do not regret that. I met up with some great people and it was pivotal in my friendship with The Elf, so I do no begrudge it. However, I am officially tired and bored by it. Maybe it;s the dirth of conversation. Maybe it's the plethora of mindnumbing conversations. Maybe it;s the forced conversations I find myself having to have. I told a couple of friends about this, one of whom agreed, and the other disagreed. He disagreed so much that he called me a "whore" and a "pun" (pronounced poon...i have no clue what it means). And he KNOWS who he IS.

It made me question what it is about usin instant messengers that people find so drawn to. Is it the ease in communication with people because then they never have to say anything face-to-face? Is it dangerous mode of dis-socialization and the need to only connect with people on surface levels (although, I know I have had deep conversations online, but they lack a certain groundedness because of that missing "live" human quality). What made him call me a "whore" simply because I fel the need to get away from it for a while. I grew tired of sitting on my ass and neglecting important things. I also find that sometimes, cyberspace as a place of compisition can be dangerous because of the lack of hearing emotions and dips and highs in tones that we associate with sarcasm, anger, depression and so on. Plus, something about the lack of the real-time conversation creates lags.

Now granted, I am not staying away FOREVER. I am planning on going back, but I just need a break. People think it is so detrimental NOT to be connected to people in cyberspace. Could this be what so many sci-fi writers have warned about the dehumanization effects of technology? Are we really moving to a co-dependance on technology as, what?, a subsitute or cover-up for human contact. I know I am not speaking from a position of fuddy-duddiness. I am a phone whore and a face-to-face addict. I think im's have their benefits which serve long distance issues, but when people are so nearby what is so hard about picking up phones or going to see someone. Have we really become that busy? Have we become that jaded about the value of "real" conversations? And just what the hell IS a Poon????

On a another note....the elf leaves for KY on Wednesday for 2 months. It will be interesting (read quiet ;b) to say the least. I imagine I will miss him terribly, but nothing like absence to make the heart grow fonder. Then again, out of sigh out of mind eh? Although the conversations will be few and far in between, they will be looked forward to. I will miss him.

Meanwhile, my ass will be stuck here waiting to start this new musical and waiting to teach yet another semester of exciting classes.