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Due to a ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jadelennox post, traced back through in_parentheses to the Salon article about the Ethan Watters book Urban Tribes, which colorwheel once mentioned to me. It gave me a "wow, I thought I was the only one" reaction which the ol' Internet hasn't hit me with in a while, surely.
When asked, I have said that the reason I haven't been actively interested in dating[1] for several years[2] was because my friends, alas, make me feel so socially content that I haven't felt much reason to seek out anything else. I was delighted to see these same thoughts succinctly reflected back in the article's sub-headline, perhaps the first time I've read them anywhere outside my own head. So, yay. (I note that the too-lazy-to-date tangent that I take is orthogonal to, and perhaps even uncommon within, the larger idea; indeed, there are lots of couples and spousal pairs within the group I feel tribiest with).
(FWIW, didn't really read the article, because it looked annoyingly written. (So you're saying it's a Salon article? Oh ho ho, very droll.) But the book it's based on may be interesting...)
[1] Maybe I should say "'dating'" in scare-quotes, since what I really mean is "'seeing someone', a process which may or may not involve actual 'dates'", but I don't know a better word for it. I know enough people who use the word "dating" like this that I tend to use it too, but I don't really like it. How about "having a girlfriend"? That sounds like "having a cow" or something. All is broken.
[2] The last time I "dated" someone (see, that looks so sketchy, with the quotes... I may as well say "The last time I 'murdered' someone"; oh well) was shortly before I got back into computer programming. Aye, before I even knew a lick of Perl. Which sounds, out of context, like a tragic causal relationship, but is actually the start of a story that has been largely a happy happy one, for me.
jadelennox post, traced back through in_parentheses to the Salon article about the Ethan Watters book Urban Tribes, which colorwheel once mentioned to me. It gave me a "wow, I thought I was the only one" reaction which the ol' Internet hasn't hit me with in a while, surely. When asked, I have said that the reason I haven't been actively interested in dating[1] for several years[2] was because my friends, alas, make me feel so socially content that I haven't felt much reason to seek out anything else. I was delighted to see these same thoughts succinctly reflected back in the article's sub-headline, perhaps the first time I've read them anywhere outside my own head. So, yay. (I note that the too-lazy-to-date tangent that I take is orthogonal to, and perhaps even uncommon within, the larger idea; indeed, there are lots of couples and spousal pairs within the group I feel tribiest with).
(FWIW, didn't really read the article, because it looked annoyingly written. (So you're saying it's a Salon article? Oh ho ho, very droll.) But the book it's based on may be interesting...)
[1] Maybe I should say "'dating'" in scare-quotes, since what I really mean is "'seeing someone', a process which may or may not involve actual 'dates'", but I don't know a better word for it. I know enough people who use the word "dating" like this that I tend to use it too, but I don't really like it. How about "having a girlfriend"? That sounds like "having a cow" or something. All is broken.
[2] The last time I "dated" someone (see, that looks so sketchy, with the quotes... I may as well say "The last time I 'murdered' someone"; oh well) was shortly before I got back into computer programming. Aye, before I even knew a lick of Perl. Which sounds, out of context, like a tragic causal relationship, but is actually the start of a story that has been largely a happy happy one, for me.
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I think that the ease in which people can form "ad hoc" groups for events has something to do with this. With all of the cell phones, pagers, email, blogs, It is a lot easier (and a lot less formal) to organize an event with friends now than it was say 20 years ago.
I'd also have to say that blogging, or having a mailing list, or a message board, etc. also makes the process of enculturating go a little faster, and allows a tribe to expand beyond the usual bounds of physical togetherness.
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