Over the past week, I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with some fantastic, old friends, friends I’d not seen in years. And while I’ve enjoyed the time together, in each case, my friends have left.
I’m not good with goodbyes… not that bad, but who likes ’em, right?
I remember back when I was about ten years old, my best friend moved to Washington D.C. I’m pretty sure I cried when he left.
This evening, though, as I said goodbye to one of my friends, he said, “See you on facebook.” And that’s when it hit me:
I’ll never have to say “goodbye” the same way again.
Phones and snailmail have been around for a while, but those still require a lot of connection friction: it takes a lot of effort to connect that way if you don’t plan to do it before you part.
Not online though. Now if someone’s online, I can find them. We’re now living in a connected world, whether we’re physically connected or not.
And that drastically alters the meaning of goodbye, at least the goodbye I dreaded.
Now goodbye really only means TTYL.
