We went to brunch with all our kids and grandkids this past weekend. We\u2019ve been attempting to do just that since sometime in June. As is often the case, I\u2019m not sure what my point is, but 50 years ago this outing would have been much simpler.<\/p>\n
The world today is not conducive to physically connecting people. People today work more, eat McDonald\u2019s hamburgers or whatever they can, when they can, just to get by \u2014 all this leads to losing connection to one another in the process. Most people rarely have friends over and fewer and fewer join community or social clubs or civic organizations.<\/p>\n
I was just thinking (like I always do) how things have changed since, say, World War II. People were much more civic-minded than the current generation. They joined more, gave more, voted more and trusted more. Today, we spend more and more time in our cars. When I was growing up people lived at home and went to work, but they also went to those \u201cother\u201d places. Today, those other places pretty much don\u2019t exist \u2014 the post offices, hardware stores, coffee shops, barbershops, even \u201cmain streets.\u201d If you don\u2019t have those other places, you don\u2019t get to know the people around you. The sense of community kind of disappears and we fall into the home-to-work and back again routine. Not that I\u2019m in any position to place \u201cblame,\u201d but I guess I blame social media for redefining our idea of community. There is now a Facebook community and a Twitter community and we have \u201cfriends\u201d in these communities, but if you think about it, when we\u2019re around and with<\/em> people, a lot, if not most, of what we communicate is nonverbal. It\u2019s really hard to truly understand people if you\u2019re not face-to-face. Kids need hands-on learning experiences to understand some things \u2014 like how to be gentle with the dog, or be respectful of older people or even how to ride a bicycle. Those things can\u2019t be learned on an iPad.<\/p>\n My parents didn\u2019t even own<\/em> a key to our house. People trusted other people, even strangers. My guess is that today most people tend to not<\/em> trust others. I recently read that a fairly high percentage of people don\u2019t have a single close friend, or someone with whom you can discuss \u201cimportant matters.\u201d It seems that a good portion of the younger population suffer from social isolation. I say \u201csuffer,\u201d but I\u2019m sure the younger generation doesn\u2019t see it that way at all.<\/p>\n Obviously the Internet has changed the world and how we live \u2014 we can get most anything from Amazon so we don\u2019t \u201cneed\u201d those other places like the hardware store, or bookstore or drug store. Where I grew up in Maysville, we didn\u2019t know each other just because we chose to be friends, we did know each other as friends, but also as customers, and businessmen. We knew each other\u2019s names, not just as \u201cthe guy that runs the drugstore.\u201d Even in this important election campaign, we watch candidates on TV or read their \u201ctweets\u201d and maybe even participate in on-line or telephone polls, but if one of the candidates held a rally locally, I\u2019d bet a high percentage of the people wouldn\u2019t even attend.<\/p>\n The line between our online communities and our real life is blurring\u2026maybe that\u2019s a good thing; we use the Internet to invite people to dinner and probably serve something made from an online recipe instead of one of our grandmother\u2019s favorite recipes. There\u2019s probably no reason that we can\u2019t use the modern technology to make it easier to interact with others, by scheduling face-to-face meetings and maybe even identifying common interests and groups we\u2019l like to participate in. It\u2019s something to think about and maybe even discuss. If you\u2019d like talk about it, send me a text\u2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We went to brunch with all our kids and grandkids this past weekend. We\u2019ve been attempting to do just that since sometime in June. As is often the case, I\u2019m not sure what my point is, but 50 years ago … Continue reading
\nI remember growing up…. \u00a0downtown (such as it was) was where people met and talked. The businessmen all took \u201ccoffee breaks\u201d and met at the local cafe mid-morning and usually in the afternoon. They drank their bottomless cups of 5-cent coffee and talked<\/em> to each other about everything<\/em>. If you went to the barber shop for a haircut, the place might be full, but probably no one was getting a haircut \u2014 it was a place the guys hung out, to discuss politics, the crops, weather, sports or anything else going on in the community or world. One could get nails and wire, kerosene lamps, rope or just about anything else needed at the hardware store, but its real purpose seemed to be a meeting place. Go in the back and there was always a lively discussion of some important topic like who would win the world series or whether or not to put a stop sign on highway 19\u2026. You went to the post office to get your mail, but more importantly to socialize and find out what was going on with your neighbors.<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019ll admit I grew up in a very small town, but I knew everyone in town, and they knew me. Today I really don\u2019t know some of our closest neighbors.<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n