Is it just me, or are our society becoming more anti-social?
On the train, everybody sits with their head down, ignoring everyone's gaze. Some people have a laptop open. One guy's actually watching a portable TV.
Today, when you chat up a random girl while walking down the street (or a guy, if you're female), most people find it extremely strange. When I randomly talk to a stranger, especially if its a girl, most of my friends say things like "Are you mad? She'll think you're a freak."
Well, it doesn't happen. 5% of people will think you're a freak, but the other 95% will find you to be quite friendly (as long as you dont threaten to kill them). And another 5% will go out with you
My grandad can still remember a time when you made friends by talking to people while buying some bread, or chat to a few guys while sitting on the bus station.
Today, most people at the bus station try to shut themselves off from each other.
When I was a kid, we moved into a new apartment in a quiet suburb. The neighbours greeted us with a basket of bread fresh from their oven, and we went over for a small dinner party. Our families became good friends.
10 years later, I move out to an apartment near college. Most of the people, some of them college students, put their head down while walking down the corridor. I greet most of the people on my floor, but every time I knocked on a door, it was 5 minutes before the resident actually unlatched the security chain!
I don't blame this problem on America, or capitalism, or the church or whatever. I blame this problem on people. As we become an "advanced" society, we no longer see the need for friendships. Instead, we're becoming absorbed in our computer games and television and chat rooms (why the hell would you go into a chat room when theres a billion people out there to talk to in REAL LIFE).
Those of you who enjoy living hermit lifestyles, you don't need to move to the country. The city is already a place where everyone is shutting themselves off from the physical world, and entering the "global village" or "cyberspace". People don't need social skills anymore; all you need to do is type some bs into your "chat room".
Like they said, before getting to know some weird guy in Argentina, how about chatting with the neighbours?