One of the great things about The OC was the ease of the characters’ interactions. Seth popped across to Ryan’s pool house, Summer came over and knocked on Seth’s bedroom door, all and sundry would get past Summer’s evil “step-monster” to enter her pillowed abode.
The degree of social contact was enviable, people would make the effort to spend time with each other. Writer Josh Schwartz took the piss out of “Seth-Ryan” time, but it showed people’s desire for connection and the effort required once established.
To avoid losing credibility, The OC will no longer be mentioned.
It does raise a serious point though. Are people in the real world making the same effort to establish and maintain social connections?
Richard Watson, author of Future Files: A History of the Next 50 Years, discussed this recently using “cuddle parties,” gatherings where complete strangers provided each other with non-sexual intimacy. Fast food on demand? Try physical comfort and reassurance on demand.
Sounds ridiculous? How about this. Businessmen in Japan, overworked and stretched to the limit are resorting to intravenous cures for “three-thirty-itis”. Infusions of vitamins and minerals are given by health boutiques to boost energy and provide sustenance for the working day.
Not that ridiculous considering a certain AFL football team decided the best way to treat dehydration was to infuse saline intravenously during the half-time break.
It’s all just too easy.
And this is Richard Watson’s point. Time is money. Efficiency is everything. If we spend less time and money interacting with people or improving our health then we’ve won haven’t we? We’re a more efficient society.
Why bother going over to your friend’s house for a chat, when you can sit in your bedroom and talk to seven friends simultaneously on instant messaging? That’s far more efficient.
Better still, why go to the effort of talking when you can Super-Poke your two hundred “friends” on Facebook to show them how much you care. Social interaction en masse, the pinnacle of efficiency.
We’re better connected than before. High speed broadband, wide mobile phone networks, instant messaging. It’s all bullshit. Where’s the quality in our connections? Human adaptability is an admirable trait, but sometimes works against us. If we don’t need to make the effort, we won’t. We’re too smart for our own good.
However, there’s another human trait that’s as important.
Physical presence provides a degree of comfort and well-being that no amount of intravenous vitamins could compete with. It stimulates on many levels, and is unquantifiable in its ability to invigorate and renew.
So, next time you’re sitting alone waiting to log on to WiiConnect
Is the internet your only connection that needs upgrading?
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