Okay, so does anyone else feel weird when you see people you vaguely know from school or work or (fill in blank here) outside of school, work or (blank) and its like
You: "Hi!"
Vague Acquaintance: "Hey!"
You:"......Okay....bye!"
And then both you and the Vague Acquaintance think:
Awkward.
It's like when you're a little kid and you believe that when school is over the teachers vanish into thin air because they cannot and do not exist out of school.
And then you see them...in a grocery store!
It's like someone just told you that the Easter Bunny isn't real. You don't want to believe it, but the proof is undeniable.
Now you could always just not say "HI!". Problem solved, right?
Well, it would be, if there wasn't that automatic pull, when you see someone you know, to acknowledge them. It's like how on facebook if someone requests you and you vaguely remember their face and you see that you have a few friends in common, so you just accept.
And then you throw them in the "other" section of your chat options and find ways to make sure their statuses don't keep popping up on your news feed.
You don't know them really y en ninguna manera do you really want to talk to them or learn about their life.
But you recognized them, so you accepted their friend request.
Now with real friends it's different. You want to know what their statuses are and you hope they are on chat because you want to talk with them.
When you see a real friend outside of school or work or whatever (lets say school) and you say "Hi!" you mean "I'm so happy to see you! We haven't seen each other in forever!" and when they say "Hey!" they mean "I KNOW! The thirty minutes between now and school were sooooooooo long! Never leave me again!" And then you talk until your parents drag you away from each other.
I'm fine with acknowledging vague acquaintances with short conversations. The less I know the person, the less I talk to them, because when I don't know someone very well and I try a longer conversation than:
Me: Hi!
Vague Acquaintance: Hey!
It ends up like:
Me: Sooooo....did you hear the new Trock song?
Vague Acquaintance: What's Trock?
Me: It's music about the interstellar traveler Dr. Who...you know what. Never mind.
Awkward.
Sincerely,
Elle
