Cleanse

I talked to a guy today who told me he was taking a social media cleanse. While admirable for sure, all I could envision was a high colonic flushing out deliberately ironic tweets, cutesy selfies and the cares button on Facebook. I’m fairly certain that wasn’t what he was talking about however. I’m not sure, and he didn’t elaborate, as to whether or not it was the holiday or the post election season that was driving his need to purge his social media.

We moved to innocuous topics; what he did for the holiday, (nothing as he was trying to do his part to reduce the spread), his favorite caffeinated drink and how he was filling his spare time (Netflix). We talked weather and getting cars and houses ready for the upcoming cold. We glossed over the pandemic but laughed about the most recent toilet paper shortage. It was a typical starter conversation between two strangers making small talk as we were somewhat confined to the same space.

I have both of my parents personalities, so while I love hanging out on my couch, reading a book with a spiked cup of cocoa, I’m also socially inclined and, like my father, can hold a conversation with a plant if it looked interested in chatting. I fondly remember going with my dad whenever he was donating blood at the Red Cross. All the volunteers knew him by sight and would make a point to wander over to have a word. He would talk to whomever was on the cot next to him about the football team, fishing, the weather or his daughters. I was in awe. This larger than life figure regularly enjoyed talking to all sorts of people, and not only that, the people he was talking to enjoyed themselves as well. He was terrible about remembering names (I got that from him too), but he would remember your face and what you last talked about. I don’t always remember our last conversation, but I know how to get back in the swing of things and can remember little tidbits of our conversation.

Dad wasn’t super impressed with social media. He used the apps as tools to connect, but he got his buzz from engaging with people. I wonder if that is what the gentleman is trying to do as well. Maybe he is trying to reboot his in-person social awareness more than his online presence. Unless I see him again I will never know. Although part of me wonders how serious he is about it. As he walked away he had Tik Tok playing on his phone.