I have been thinking about this for the past few days, and wonder if some of the “social awkwardness” that you (and I) experience could be generational. The “Generation X’ers” (or whatever we are referred to as now) are sort of a “bridge” generation, born into a more simpler analogue world and transitioning into the digital age we are currently in.

In the 1970s we had two married parents at home, very few electronic gadgets, no helmets, no guns in school, no Ritalin, skinned knees from playing outdoors, and close relationships with our neighbors. We slowly watched all of this give way to divorce or 2 income households, microwaves, metal detectors at school, the internet, cell phones, GPS systems, satellite TV/radio, a 24 hours news cycle (in other words, a lot of opportunities for isolation and detachment).

Most people older than us never embraced the digital age. Most people younger have no concept of (and therefore no longing for) our simple analogue existence. Caught in the middle, we embraced both worlds as best we could, but perhaps never found a real comfort zone. I have serious misgivings about a society where people will sit at a dinner table together yet carry on conversations or texting others on their cells, spend hours chatting with people around the world on the internet but do not know their neighbor’s kids names, or will spend hours gaming inside on a warm summer day. And yet I am guilty of all of the above!

I think our generation is a mixture of all of the good and bad of the two, and it has lead to serious social awkwardness and anxiety in many.