Shhhh
The office is remarkably quiet at the moment – no doubt because most families that have disposable income or plan ahead have sodded off for Easter. The commute through town on the mountain bike has been strange – no near-death experiences at the hands of trophy mums and nannies delivering Ruperts and Tabathas to school gates around town. This morning I cycled through without incident while listening to the “Favorite Coffee House” playlist on Spotify.
I have been using the quiet time to learn something for a change – watching YouTube videos, and reading text books about all manner of nerdy subjects. I often wonder about booking myself in for conferences, user groups, or meetups around the country, but never organise myself enough to do anything about it.
I don’t think I’ve ever been to a meet-up. I remember for several years a few of the inner-circle of friends at Tumblr arranged a regular meet-up in New York. I counted many of those appearing in the photos as far flung friends, and always felt a little envy. I wasn’t really in that circle though – I’ve always been thousands of miles away from the majority of those I have come to know.
I have sometimes wondered what the reaction would have been – had I turned up at one of the New York Tumblr meet-ups. Would people have done a double take as I quietly made my way to the bar ?
It’s a strange thing, this “social internet”. We like to think of the world becoming smaller, but in reality it’s almost exactly the same size it always was, and we are no closer to meeting each other in the real world.