BORING BOREDOM

There are many ways to spend free time – like staring at a wall, watching paint dry, write nonsense/something like this, start a blog, contemplate starting a blog, think about why people contemplate starting blogs, read about why people ever contemplate anything…or any other thing that doesn’t involve electrical power and cellular network (especially if you are in Africa) – which makes the alarming rate at which people complain of boredom sadly astounding. Thirty minutes without their (smart) phones makes youths (and dare I say some adults) of nowadays uneasy.

At this point, I have to make two things clear:
What I am going to end up writing about isn’t what I had in mind when I wrote the first sentence
Errr…I have forgotten what my second point is supposed to be. Moving on…
Smart phones, through the help of social media, are gradually grinding real life human interactions to a halt. I was on an ATM queue the other day – one of the many places where a serial flirt like me picks up targets, by creating weird EYE contacts – and everyone was busy on their phones, to my dismay. Some were smiling, some scowling, a few giggles. Then there was this particular dude who was typing at “breakfinger” speed; something I only do when the other party is trying to breakup with me – Yes, I broke up with the same ex several times-. Now I have to find even more sociopathic and creative ways to pick up targets.

Another increasing trend is the rate at which people text and drive. Ehen, now I remember what my second numbered point is supposed to be: I am in no way “innocent” of any of these vices.
So I sat under a tree close to a major road, observing the flow of traffic (another thing to do with your free time) some days ago and I discovered (not astonishingly) that every other young driver was doing something with their phones alongside driving. And the ones that were my ilk, (with a female ‘copilot’), had their passengers on their [passengers] phones too. Personally, I find long journeys boring if all I have to do is drive. So, I spice it up by dancing, chatting, or making videos. But in my defense, my co-commuters are usually focused on the road whenever I am not. And again, I believe local transit requires more concentration… I digress, not for the first time.

Ignore my verbiage. Verbose, they mostly are. The gist is, social media is eating deep into real social life. Our phones are taking over our lives. It is not uncommon to see people sending friend requests to dead people. That shows how shallow these friendships really are. Now we meet people online or by stealing their phone numbers off mutual friends’ phones (actually, that’s how I met my ex who I like to think I dated for five years!), BBM pins and what have you. We start casually. Initial niceties, mostly veneer. Then it gets religious; staying up so late it becomes early morning. Then a point comes when we run out of things to talk about, even the perverted ones.  The subsequent drifting apart is such an anticlimax, but it is not unexpected. I mean, there is only a few ways to rephrase questions that mean “what is your favorite sex position?”

There is a finite amount of topics you can chat about without seeing each other, not to talk of having mutual friends. And mutual friends are what keep relationship conversations going, IMO. Without them, what/who do/will we discuss? And all that while, there is a brother/sister somewhere, physically available, who we keep rolling with, only until the next exciting online prospect comes around. Sadly.
I don’t expect this piece to change anyone’s attitude towards their phones or the like. Verily, I don’t even expect many people to read this article. I’m just a guy who knows a guy who owns a blog. Hence, my pedantic rant. I am not even necessarily going to change how I use social media, as a result, so there is absolutely zero reason why you should.
Pizzout!

L.J