Social Uteri

Game theory tenet: People enjoy playing games they’re good at. They are less likely to spend time playing other games, ergo their old skills get better and they don’t develop new skills. (Metaphor foreshadowed.)

I’ve noticed a trend, not just in my life but in yours as well. Used to be, before cell phones and email, we got out more; out of our homes, out of our jobs, out of our ways of thinking. We spoke politely to strangers about the weather, or traffic. We had a name for it: “small talk”. Doing it well was even considered a useful skill.

With technology, it’s easy to stay in an ideological bubble. We don’t really socialize anymore, instead we ICQ, email or just chat online. Even our news comes from a personally acceptable source from the online smorgasbord. It’s a self-contained system, a psycho-social uterus. There’s no impetus to leave it. What, and be outside? You know who is out there? Aside from being unsafe, strangers are potentially unpleasant.

To turn game theory into metaphor, we stick with people we know well enough that there is no danger of surprise. Our ability to compromise, or even communicate, has diminished proportionately. Jokes are all inside jokes, like the guy in the prison cafeteria who shouts out “47!” and is glared at for telling it wrong.

Last night on Pogo (playing a game I’m good at) the chat was so politically repulsive that I went to a different game (also one I’m good at, why develop new skills?) rather than try to ignore it. Today I’m complaining to you, people I enjoy, who think like I do, whose ranks form the walls of my own social cocoon. And you know what? It’s comfortable here. I think I’ll stay.