“Hello.”
Am I the only one that does this? I load up the instant messenger program, take a look at who is online, find someone at least slightly interesting, and send them a message. “Hello”, and that’s it. I wait until they reply. “Hello”. I expect a conversation to follow. I love conversation but I’ve never been particularly good at starting them. I did the same thing to my mom when I was much younger. I wanted to chat but I had no particular topic in mind. “Hello”. “Hi, Mike”, I’d get a bit of a response, but what next? I wish it was easier to start conversations.
I think I get away with this on instant messenger. “Hello”, I start in the usual manner but the recipient doesn’t actually feel like chatting. So they say they are busy, or they say nothing, and close their window, hopefully not too bothered by the whole ordeal. But when you phone someone, or when you walk over to someone’s house, there’s supposed to be a reason. Imagine calling up someone you find slightly interesting and saying “hello”. I don’t mean close friends and family that you would really call just to chat, think about distant acquaintances, people you know about but have never met or even talked to. You need a reason to call people like that. Or imagine going over to some slightly interesting person’s house and ringing the doorbell. You need a reason to be there… like “want to play cards?” or, “I found your cat…” but when you say “hello” and stare blankly people find it strange.
Instant messenger is different, it’s a little more okay to just say “hello”. But the responses aren’t always that much better.
“Hello”
“hi”
“How are you?”
“good”
And I have no idea what to say next. So that’s it, the window is closed. Hardly enlightening. But then there are those times when the words do come, and you think enough to ask follow up questions until you are completely engaged with the other person, talking about physics or metaphysics or sharing links to cute things on the Internet. And then, it’s worth it isn’t it? All those times you said “hello” and got absolutely nowhere in chatting with someone have finally paid off because you are so much richer for the conversation you are having now. You have a new understanding of reality through superstrings and the implications that has for a consciousness that continues after death, a consciousness that still remembers cute things it has seen on the Internet. And all those times you said “hello” and it went nowhere, they didn’t do much harm. Hopefully you didn’t piss anyone off too much. Don’t do it too often. “Hello”, “hello”, “hello”, “hello” every two minutes for an hour can get annoying. I did this to my mom when I was younger. But there’s no harm in the occasional “hello” with no specific topic of conversation in mind.
For more about cute things on the Internet, visit http://www.cuteoverload.com/. I can’t believe I just spent ten minutes looking at cute things on that site.
