Thursday, April 8, 2010

Friends Torn Apart By Incompatible Technology Preferences

Leslie Fisher is a texter. Sally LeBlanc prefers Facebook. And the lifelong middle-age friends have discovered they are living in separate technological universes -- rarely interacting anymore.

"It's pretty sad," LeBlanc said. "I spend hour after hour on Facebook. Meanwhile Leslie would be trying to text me on my phone that I never have by my side because I can't figure out how to send or receive texts, and I hate reading manuals."

For her part, Fisher says she's simply refocusing her friendships around fellow phone texters. "Look, make no mistake, I adore Sally," Fisher said. "But she never responds to my texts, she's always on Facebook, and I really just don't have time for this nonsense anymore. Trying to communicate with her is like trying to raise the dead. You practically need a ghost whisperer to reach her."

LeBlanc and Fisher's mutual friend Nicole Palmer is a chronic Yahoo! IMer who can't seem to reach either of her friends via her preferred technology either. "I love to just randomly and instantly pop up on friends' computer screens at odd hours of the day and night ... usually when they're busy with a deadline project," Palmer said. "I sometimes get the feeling that some of my friends don't enjoy communicating in real time. It's like they're stuck in time-managing email mode or something. And don't even try to convince me to waste my time on that evil Facebook. Facebook is for teenagers with nothing better to do than post informative links about political races."

Sadly, LeBlanc, Fisher, and Palmer have decided to go their separate technological ways, a tragic epidemic, no doubt playing out across America and even the world. "I'm just closer to my politically active Facebook friends that I've never met than my real friends, unfortunately," Fisher said. "That's just life in the 21st Century, I guess."

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