Love creativity? Then quit. Please.

Dear M-
You murder creativity and should retire. If you don't, I fear that our clients will never know what killer creative work is. Quit being so selfish and think about it. We might even throw you a goodbye party.

Thanks.
Leah

It's tech-sonal.

It's been a long time, but here is one of the long-awaited stoner rants.
Today's topic? Technology.

Recently i've been wondering; can you get to know and establish a relationship with someone based on text message alone? We're talkin, from the time you meet 'til a month later, the only other instance you've seen and/or shared a spoken conversation might have been just the one time you met! I'm not sure!! It's strange- all of a sudden you have to be really wise about what you write and really think before you speak. Everything can be misconstrued because you can't hear the other person's tone of voice. And as much as I love and embrace all new technology, I noticed that all this new shit eliminates our need to have face-to-face conversations.

We've essentially become extremely quiet, because we avoid all real conversation and instead look into a screen to communicate. How many times have you been sitting right next to someone and IM'ed them?? I do it constantly. In a way, it's made everything a lot more private/personal and in turn makes people a lot more suspicious and insecure about what's goin on around them. I no longer hear conversations next to me. If a friend of mine is with me and starts texting, there's always that thought "is she texting about me? why does she have to do this now?" Technology just makes everyone more private- it's crazy! Overhearing conversations is one of my favorite things! That's why sites like overheard.com do so well! Cuz you get to experience someone else's conversation just by listening around you. Makes life more interesting...

And whatever happened to multitasking?? You can obviously walk and chew gum at the same time. Now, you can't possibly text and do something else because the exact stimulai you're looking at is completely void if you try to do something else at the same time. It's not like talking outloud and cleaning a pot at the same time. Now, you can either text OR clean a pot- you cant possibly do both at the same time!! Kinda sucks.

It's funny. My ex and I used to isight all the time because we realized how impersonal it was to not speak or see the other one. And when we wanted to say something but didn't quit have the nerve to say it outloud, we would "mute talk." For example, I would mute my mike and say everything outloud that I wanted to- except, he couldn't hear me. He could only watch my facial expressions and lip read. It was actually kind of a weirdly sensual experience- cuz you're asking the other person to focus on a part of your face that they may have otherwise not noticed. I digress. The point is that you invent all kinds of new phrases that other people would only talk about if they'd experienced it themselves. And when you discover that someone else has used the same word, you form a really cool bond with them. Bonding over technology? Is that what makes people "techheads?"

Guess I'm just wondering to what extent technology can help you form bonds with people. Will it eventually replace human interaction? And can I form a relationship with someone purely over text? Cuz man, I'm really tryin over here...

God, I love weed.