Many was the time, in my 20s, when I sat in the cool air of a Kansas evening, listening to the petty complaints of coworkers and friends. I’m not exactly nostalgic for it, but at the same time I do miss knowing people who could stimulate me mentally. That’s not to say that the people I still know aren’t mentally stimulating, but they are all far away and text or a phone call isn’t the same as breathing the same air, in the dimming light on the plains. It must be very different working retail these days. If any of your coworkers are terminally online you might have a cancerous creature potentially roving the halls of your workplace. Held back by little more than the danger of starvation and homelessness. I got out before that sort of thing started seeping into the real world so much. It was bad enough with regular cancerous people. I’m not sure how I would fair if I had to fight the battles I fight online in person. I guess I would at least be physically intimidating and surprisingly charming in person. I dare not ask what it’s like for fear that the comments would devolve into conflict. It’s already been edging that way over little things for a while. It’s not unnatural for people to get crossed purposes though. I can detect a difference though. Tone, subject matter, and ad homonym. The hallmarks of terminally online behavior. I fear that soon there will be very little difference between online behavior and real world behavior. It’s already been merging, much to the detriment of all, for decades. It’s a blessing that the merging has been mercifully slow at least. I wonder where I would be if I hadn’t chosen to drop out. I guess I already know.

I think I should stop typing. My mind is wandering to places that require too much explanation and I have neither the time, nor inclination, to bother with the exposition. The weekend is upon us. I hope it greets you kindly. Maybe I’ll take a little time for myself on this weekend. Maybe I’ll think about it, but not actually do it. It will resolve into reality at some point. In any case I will return on Monday with more comic. I hope you will still find yourself invested enough to return. In fact I hope you will find yourself so invested in it that you will invest in it monetarily. I have secreted links to do so about the webpage. Can you find them? I’m sure you can. In any case, until we meet again, this comic was brought to you by the letter P, and the number 9.

9 Comments

It sounds almost like John is missing a friend, and might not realize the scope of his feelings.

Wait, I thought seven ate nine

I had to cut the most stimulating friend I ever knew loose. We were no longer “breathing the same air”. But an event occurred that put us on opposite sides and he decided he would destroy and rebuild me. And he lost. He was a collection of extremes. No middle ground. Angelic and demonic. I am better off without him but the world is not as brightly colored either.

Agree regarding the difference that electronic distance brings to conversations; sharing space almost acts as a multiplier while sharing ideas and stories.

As for the comic itself…Bridgette’s face in that last panel is too precious; meanwhile good for John for that he is willing and able to share all of this, and I look forward to seeing how Victoria decides to roll with all of this.

Honestly, despite several of my employees being zoomers, I don’t seem to have much trouble with the “terminally online” infection at my work. That’s not a very large sample size, but I can’t help but wonder if, perhaps, people aren’t getting worse because of the internet, they are just worse ON the internet, that people who can operate like normal in the real world get online and suddenly all they see are their tribes and their tribes’ enemies. I remember reading about how, over 100 years ago in the US, people would be exiled from their families for voting wrong. My grandfather was so obsessively pro-union that when his neighbor, a friend and fellow worker, took a promotion to become a manager, my grandpa immediately stopped speaking to him AND told my grandmother to stop speaking to the neighbor’s wife. The guy didn’t even DO anything; literally the day he was promoted, boom, sever all ties.

So I dunno, maybe I’ve naive or optimistic, but part of me thinks it’s not quite as bad as it could be. If anything, I feel that some of these young people crave real life interaction and fulfillment and almost go overboard in trying to be pleasant to be around. Or at the very least, are too wracked with anxiety, and generally lacking in self-confidence, to start fights in person. As I get older, I find myself worrying about them all fatherly-like, rather than being annoyed at them.

In your grandpa’s defense, I can see why, if it was for the same company.

I can speak as someone in a union, I had a very PRO union fellow employee. You know when I knew she was eyeing a management position with the company? When she turned heel and started bad mouthing the union. She went from saying how we needed to be paid more to saying we were being over paid.

Then when I was going for a position, she even admitted to me, she didn’t want me to get it (after she became a boss) because I called her out on her BS (her words).

New owners. Cameras. She started watching cameras at work…from home. Her and a couple others…all women bosses…not sure if that’s a gender thing or not…to which the owners said to stop.

However, they were more than willing to get old co workers fired.

Yes. A lot of times, bosses will turn on employees, just as co workers will often turn on each others.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience, but I really don’t understand your point. Are you saying that becoming even a low-level manager instantly turns you into HR Karen? Or that only HR Karens ever want to be managers?

My point is, when union employees become management, they turn on you.

The camera was just women, there were males the same way, they will put the blame on employees and the wrong ones if it means keeping their job.

It’s something in my experience. Union may not be that great, but it helps people from getting fired for not being buddies with the bosses. However, bosses don’t have that protection, so they throw people under the bus.

That’s why your grandpa said no contact. They will lie to employees and get their friends who are still in the union to lie for them too.

John is more aware in some bits than I.

Commenters have mentioned not being aware of crushes from and signals by women, and I’m sure I count among that group. I guess I couldn’t imagine someone getting over a crush on me (as John says) because I didn’t think much that someone would have one on me.

2973 A Missing Part.

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