is friendship still in?

rather, is seeing each other without the interruption of technology still possible?

the advent of modern technology is both a blessing and a curse. we all know its benefits of course -- faster and easier communication anywhere in the world (goodbye very limited telegrams, expensive long distance calls and the very victorian handwritten snail mails) -- but sometimes it could be too much, especially when it intrudes, interrupts, spoils an otherwise cheerful meeting among friends.

have you noticed how people in groups would gather on a coffee or dining table not talking at all but simply engrossed in each other's mobile phones and other gadgets with screens. how the only form of communication is to take each other's selfies, download them on instragram or facebook and then ask each other how many "likes" the posts got and who liked them, and what are the comments?

idiotic, you'll say. welcome to the new world.

yes, i am very old fashioned. i am ambivalent about modern technology. it took me a while to get an email account (yahoo for a loooong time. and most recently, gmail), even longer to go into friendster (by the time i got an account, it was about to be closed), and i resisted for years joining the facebook bandwagon. until now i don't play farmville or whatever it is that people now play on their screens. my mobile phone can only text and call, no igs, no tweets, no photos, no emails.

life is really simple come to think of it. so why make it complicated?

yes, i am old fashioned. i have a separate pocket camera that i plug in to my macbook to download photos so i can post them on facebook. my phone is just for calling and texting. my laptop is for emails and other internet activities. simple! so that if i lose my phone, i won't feel like i lost everything. just a part of me that i can easily replace like a lover. or an underwear. no chos!

of course i do mind when people start texting, calling, taking some calls, sending emails while you are in the middle of a conversation while having coffee, wine, or dinner. it's just bad manners. if it's that important, then by all means, let's all go home. and if it's more important than i am, then by all means let's stop seeing each other.

some people even lack the decency to say "excuse me" before they take a call, or make a call.

like when this idiot of a foreigner from a big consultancy firm based in washington. while he was interviewing me for a job in either singapore or new york, he kept on texting or checking his emails. so that when i gave him an answer, he wasn't listening at all. it was so distracting, irritating and insulting that after he gave me his name card, i tore it into pieces and left them on the table. suffice it to say that he was aghast! talk about bad manners? i can be a scumbag too, you know.

so it was so refreshing when friends and i (intimate friends, i should say even if at times, or most of the times, we disagree on about everything, or we sometimes hate each other that we stop talking for months and months) had a dinner for the birthday of one of us and our conversations, arguments, gossips were not interrupted by any phone call, or text, or email.

(we're all highly-opinionated, independent and drama queens, so arguments, disagreements, even quiet quarrels can't be avoided. but in the end, we try to make up and maintain peace and order for the sake of the universe and the environment. we all agree to disagree. or is it disagree to agree. whatever. you get my point!)

in fact, none of us even used our phones except to take photos of the food and the birthday cake.

so yes virginia p., and even puri titiwang, it's still possible to have a decent dinner among friends without losing our manners and any amount of decency. it's called respect.

respect that we all made an effort despite the hassles of traveling (visas, passports, traffics) just to see each other and dine together. so that not a minute was wasted by becoming silent for a while because someone was taking or making a call.

on that note, i say happy weekend and adieu! someone's calling.