I was in the London Apple shop the other day and fell into talking with someone about something or other, probably the iPhone, as this was just before the 3GS came out. Then this chap told me that he went to the Apple shop every day after work to charge his iPhone as his charger was broken and he couldn't afford another one, I thought this was odd as surely the time he spent in the shop could easily have been spent more wisely doing other things around town, but each to their own.
It was only afterwards that something stranger about that conversation had passed me by - here I was, talking to a total stranger, in public about something other than the weather. Perhaps gadgets and technology are the new football or whatever, giving people a common ground, an area of conversation. But rather than breaking up friendships and reducing social skills, gadgets and talking about them are helping us form friendships and new social networks. How many people do you know who you have met only virtually, but with whom you converse more regularly than people you know in real life? Rather than being a sign of the demise of our social skills, technology is actually helping us strengthen existing friendships and make new ones.
Posted via email from X's posterous
