Cyber-bunnies

This is a cross between a gripe and a soul search: I remember being amazed (not in a good way) when I heard, some years ago, that high school kids, sitting in their groups at break at school, were communicating with the others in that same group; while they were sitting together, on MIXIT on their cellphones. As I write, I stop again to marvel over this! But it was the teen rage then and we all know you have to be "in" with those. Next - my beloved teen granddaughter, whenever she came to hang out with us, brought (obviously) her cell phone - and (less obviously), her laptop. Bemused, I would watch her fingers fly over the keys of either her cell (mobile) or her laptop, as she carried on conversations with sundry other people, while we were chatting to her. She had it down to a fine art, I noticed, nodding and smiling at us from time to time; an absent minded comment thrown in now and then. She did it with such grace, and obviously without any intention of being rude: it was just a life style for her. Now, with easy access to the Internet, FaceBook, Blogger, Twitter, email, available on cell phones, many adults seem to have made it their lifestyle too. And are as adept at it as my granddaughter was. It has become just weird socialising with people who have made this space their home. Someone recently said this (with some sadness) in my hearing: "I've become used to the third person in the room." If we do the cyber-bunny thing, the message being picked up by the people in our company could be: "You are boring. ANY person on this gadget is more interesting than you." Even if that is not our intention. I'm not talking about when both parties are busy with cyber-stuff together; that can be very matey. I'm talking about when one partner wants face-to-face time Or in a situation where its obviously about socialising - And the cyber-connection is preferred. I have to be so careful about this: not on the phone, (mine is positively archaic) but with my laptop. If I bring it into the lounge with us, the temptation to 'go there' is huge. So I leave it in the study and find lots of 'opportunites' to drop in there. Like making tea. . . :-) I feel (seriously) there is an addictive quality to this. Addiction = you do something even when you know its the wrong thing to do. Maybe the addiction is not just about cyber-space per se Maybe its about getting attention; being in-the-loop; escaping our own reality; whatever. I know we bloggers have spent a lot of time questioning ourselves as to why we blog. It might be quite interesting to ask some similar questions about our cyber-bunnyness. I have a feeling I might get some flack about this post. Your all being such cyber-bunnies, an' all. :-) That's ok Bring it on.