It is the distant future in the year 2010...

Me: Look at us!
Anna: What?
Me: I mean, we're talking, face-to-face.
Anna: I guess we are.
Me: Isn't that so analog? Like, there's no electronic interface separating us. We're not holding banana-shaped pieces of plastic to our heads, or pushing buttons. No, we're looking at each other in the face with our eyes and then we're speaking to each other using our vocal chords. How crazy is that?
Anna: Quite remarkable.

Just the other day, Anna and I were contemplating what it means to socialize. I suppose that neither of us has the firmest grasp on the subject, and we spent some time comparing notes on when we considered it appropriate to use a text message. But what freaked us out the most was the sheer size and power of online social networks. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we were left in awe or had our minds boggled. For me, the image that immediately comes to mind when I think of web 2.0 and social networking is that of a glob of grey matter, a mosh pit of neurons, firing off impulses in a storm of activity.

Anyway, Anna recounted how Tumblr, through a string of posts and re-posts of some content that she had made, ended up linking her to an acquaintance who she had not contacted for the better part of a decade. Bizzare. Welcome to the future of human interaction, I guess.

Postscript: Sorry Anna, but I know that that's not how you talk. Well, that's not really how I talk either.