Interact.exe

As I was reading through Reddit, an amazing picture caught my attention. I was shocked to learn it was posted to r/creepy and was the visually arresting result of massive wildfires in Spain and Portugal. I had no idea fires were currently raging through Spain and Portugal. At this time, we have wildfires throughout the Western US. Naturally, news in America takes precedence over everything else, for better or for worse.

Of course, the natural response was to ask questions about the photo.

"Where was this taken?", "What is going on in the photo?", and so on. Then there is this weird sense of guilt afterward.     

"Why didn't you just Google it!?! What are you, twelve-years-old!?!".

This is the response I received when asking what PAL stood for in an online forum. Phase Alternating Line, before you ask or Google it yourself.

I get it, we live in the day and age of information but, I don't want apps and robots to be the only things I know how to hold conversations with. I find myself disliking spending time with random strangers online more and more, but some of you are fine people. 

By asking someone who is currently experiencing a devastating situation, where the fires are burning so intensely, the air they are breathing has turned blood red, it might make them feel as if someone cares about their well being, instead of "Googling it", or talking to that often incompetent as hell robotic overload Apple calls, "Siri", instead.

It's simply another form of human connection, which shockingly, some of us actually enjoy from time to time.   

"You waste more time waiting for a response on an internet forum than you would if you just Googled it.".

Really? You really want to min/max all human interactions? I know we're already heading down this path and not much can staunch the rapid outflow of flesh and blood in exchange for bleeps and bloops, but when should it stop?

Amazon in 2099; We now offer cremation and human waste disposal services. "You send us a box, we give you an urn.", "You sent us a cold corpse, we return to you warm memories.", I've got a million of these so I'll just stop now.

I am reminded of how the internet is not being used to its full potential. For some time now we have had the internet as a tool to connect us with others. Not just people we would normally talk to. Not people we can immediately pick up the phone and say hello to. Not the kind of people we would fill our own echo chamber with, but connect with people who are different from ourselves.


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