VonGuard's Journal: Fear of a Talk Planet

The entire hip world lives in fear of the same thing: endless conversation.

There are those among us that would be considered time sinks, if they were in a videogame. You know the type and the scenario: You're sitting at a bus stop alone when a desheveled stranger wanders up. Gropples towards you with mud on his knees, if you will.

The stranger tries to make eye contact with you, and you aciduously avoid it. You know that this fellow will immediately strike up a conversation with you if given half a chance, and so you bury your face in a newspaper, Guardian, pamphlet, bus schedule, whatever you have handy.

But if this is a really determined motherfucker, as is usually the case, reading won't help. The stranger will typically start talking to you anyway, blissfully unaware of the fact that you detest having random discussions with unknown people who arae completely devoid of the knowledge of social cues and how to recognize them.

You can never exit such a situation politely or gracefully, and I firmly believe it is the conscious avoiding of this very type of interaction that keeps all of humanity (Or at least, all Americans) from being more social and open.

I am that stranger, of course.