Touch and Gone

Are we on a date? I guess we are. You are there, and I am here. We’re in a posh, cozy coffee shop, with all the amenities you and I want and need, especially the wifi connection. There you are, with your laptop playing whatever game there is in your facebook, while here I am with mine, practically doing the same. So much for a date that probably would not end up in a kiss, unless of course, we’ll do it in cyberspace.

So near, yet so far. Aptly describes how it “feels” like,the scheme to communicate without the need to be there. Technological advancement as they say. As much as it helped bridge the gap between here and there, I would surmise that it is not a far fetched idea if I will say it also that has its strange way of de-humanizing us. Assuming of course na human ka, unlike me.

When MIRC was still the in thing, Internet café sprouted like mushrooms and barely will you have the opportunity to have a unit to rent due to chatters. MIRC chatters pa jud. Due to the need to study technology (ayos na palusot), I also need to log on, on these MIRC chatrooms and of course chat.

More often than not, chatting beside me is a pretty lass, oblivious to my presence, busy minding her chatmates. I am sure, in a little while, she’ll be out to meet or the appropriate term would be, makipag eyeball (EB) sa iyaha nga chatmate. Bakit indi na lang ako I chat nito, at least live pa. Was it the thrill of the unknown? Or for her, talking to me would be a waste of time and a disappointment? Little did she know that her EB would just be as disappointing as I am, or prolly worse.

The ironic thing about it is that, why on earth spend money, effort and tikals (pretensions) on people as far as Cebu, Cagayan, Thailand, Barpa and wherever, talking, chatting when there are people beside them. Literally beside them, that are also chatting, that they could talk personally, but they would not even bother to do so. Noh?

I even find myself victim or should I say guilty of such de-humanizing activities. One of my favorite palusots as of late if busy or tinatamad makipagkita sa gf (which rarely happens even if la ako gf now, wink) is, “di na muna tayo kita, tawagan lang kita later”. Unli naman eh. Oo nga naman noh? Which basically explains the popularity of unli-txt, unli-calls and unli-rice in recent times.

I bet you are too. Since you are reading this, i am pretty sure na may internet connection ka and prolly have friends from afar that you are in constant communication with. I would also bet that you barely knew and rarely talk with some if not all of your neighbors. Noh?

Sige lang, lingaw man sad. We’ll just need to adhere to the signs of the times, where keeping in touch simply means the absence of “human touch”. Because sometimes when we touch, the honesty’s too much.



Before everything gets out of hand, I’m outta here.