Have we met?
I asked that question here on this site in September of 1998 in a post one month before MetaGrrrl.com would turn into what we would later call a blog.
I say I’ve never met Karawynn, Jamie, Carl and Justin. What the fuck does that mean?
I sit next to someone on the bus, I shake hands with a co-worker’s client who I’ll never see again, I chat with the bank teller and somehow these are people I’ve met?
…
My body doesn’t encompass me.
I don’t have to breathe the same air to be in the same place as you.Have we met?
What a different world we live in now. We’ve been through radical changes in politics, technology, and cultural norms. Our days have transformed as the non-present world becomes present through these magic devices in our pockets. I live in a different city. Have a completely new career. Am in another relationship.
What hasn’t changed? Many of those people that some folks used to say I’d never met are still a part of my daily life.
So here’s my question for them, and for you, what has made these “virtual” connections so strong?
How has the way we built the web and the mobile internet and our tech-centric cities strengthened and weakened those chains since that year, 1998, when it seemed like maybe this world wide web thing might be sticking around?
http://embed-script.branch.com/production/embed.m.js
A conversation 14 years long
MetaGrrrl 