Running for Your Life: “Spoke Words” to Him

Overheard on the Long Island Railroad, two teenagers in rapt, breathless conversation. Very loud!

“Like, I haven’t even ‘spoke words’ to him.”

Then, one teen expresses shock … shock! when discussing unfriendly behavior from that person she had previously regarded as a friend. I mean, really!?

One would think that friends ARE exclusively those people you “speak words” to. But maybe not.

It seems obvious that the teen is implying that the boy she hasn’t “spoke words” to isn’t in a position to benefit from her intimate opinions. It used to be, of course, that was how we came to be connected to people. You know, “speaking words” to them.

That leaves us with two distinct types of “friends.” Those to whom we “speak words” and those we have decided, for now at least, it isn’t in our best interest to “speak words” to.

It’s strange to me (anyone else?) how social media, especially followed on mobile phones, shapes (infects?) human behavior. Who under thirty actually “speaks words” into their smartphones?

There are times – long rides on the LIRR being one – when I can be persuaded to think that brains as I used to know them are finished.

Next: Running for Your Life: Artists Talk