In my final paper I bring up a personal experience involving how technology was pretty much being forced into my social life here at Rutgers. I had to keep it brief in the final because it was only an example and I did not want to get off topic, but for one of my final blog entries I thought I could expand on it and tell the whole story.
When I moved into the dormitories on Busch campus I just could not seem to relate to any of the other kids on my floor or in my building. I figured it would just take a longer time for them to get to know me and then everything would just kind of work out. While the semester went on this was not the case. Everyone seemed to be getting closer with each other and I still could not seem to get to know anyone in the dorm. Occasionally I would over hear kids talk about some dormitory relationship building meeting that happened where there was free food, and I would ask them "how do you know about all these events." Every response I got back would go along with a confused look and always the same response of "didn't you get the message that the RA sent out?"
By this point in my college career of not being able infiltrate the friend circle of my dorm, I was going with the mentality of "screw the kids living in my dorm I'm going to make my own friends." After about half a semester went by I was spending most of my time on College Ave away from my home on Busch. I would only come back the dorm when I wanted sleep, and this seemed to be the relationship I was going to keep with the dorm and the other students who occupied it. Then one night when I got back to my dorm, there was a floor meeting happening that once again I had know idea about. Right when I walked in the meeting just came to a halt, you could even hear the record scratch that happens in movies when something awkward happens.
The RA, who I felt like I had not seen since move in day, did not look happy with me. He called me over and asked why I had not been coming to these MANDATORY meetings. To say the least that question pissed me off a bit. I explained how I would come if I had any idea they were happening, and once I again I got the response of "didn't you get the message?" Once again I was puzzled and then he told me that the only messages he sends out are through facebook, which I did not have. He then went on to explain how if I got a facebook I would stay better connected with the world. This is when I got super annoyed, "How does this make any sense? How does staying at home and staring at facebook connect you more with the world than actually going out and meeting people in the world!" In the end I got a facebook, never went to another dorm meeting on principle, and I remained equally connected to the world as I was before but now I had facebook as the middleman.
No comments:
Post a Comment