And you couldn't have been blacked out, not really, if you were still texting. Or taking photos.

The college girls who come to the bar: they love their social media. Sure, there are regulars who use social media, but Not Like That. Not Like That basically meaning like This: snapshots and film clips and texting, seemingly every action, posted. Video or it doesn't exist. Video or they don't exist.

In the evenings the college boys hang around the college girls, and the college girls hang out with each other and their phones. They make faces for one another, they pose, a shimmy here and there; they are no doubt aware that the college boys are watching, but the boys are mostly left as subscribers to the live feed: the girls just want to have fun. And it isn't fun anymore if you're not showing yourself having fun to your friends.

So if a college girl is playing pool, one of her friends films it. They take photos of the empty glasses they have amassed on the table. They look at each others' phones, to see what each other is doing. They document their evening, and in the morning they can review it to see what actually happened, because it all became a blur and they can't really remember the end of the night. And you couldn't have been blacked out, not really, if you were still texting. Or taking photos. Some of which may have to be deleted, of course. 

It probably is nice, being able to delete the awkward moments. Except those awkward moments are now on other people's phones. Not The End of the World, unless it was so obviously The End of the World. Like it was accidentally posted on the site your parents can view, perhaps.

Romance still happens at the bar for the college kids, of course: alcohol will ensure that. And it must be a different world for the college boys now: years ago what The Object of Your Desire did, or talked about, was often a Mystery outside of your view. You filled out the gaps with your dreams and lust and conjecture. Maybe there is still Mystery, even when it seems like college girls post everything: maybe it's a plus to know things about her you previously wouldn't know, even after weeks of dating.

Or maybe you can grow tired of her before you actually ever have a relationship with her. I suppose that happens, too. Because now you can pretty much have a relationship with her, even if she's never talked to you.


- james james

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