My cats, the internet and I.

We are becoming an isolated society.  Social media and technology are facilitating and encouraging isolation.  What makes me say this?  Well, first, my commute from Concord to San Francisco takes up two hours of my day, so technically by the time I am home it’s almost seven and I have my daily home tasks to tackle (feed cats, pet cats, clean the litter box, water plants, take out trash, etc.) – so it’s not like I get to go hang out and be social.  And when I do have time to be social, I am actually pretty freaking exhausted from the week running around and all I want to do is sit on my sofa with a cat on my lap and watch Netflix.  Yeah.  But, I love it.  Yes, I do – I LOVE IT!!!  I look forward to my down time.  Alone.  Me. Me. Me.  And I cheat myself into a faux sociability thru social media.  I post thoughts and commentaries and whatnot and a few of you participate in the dialogue, and this leaves me feeling “socialized”.  Check!!  Done.  However, this weekend I left the house and went to see “I, Tonya”.  It was great.  And you know what was great?  To be in the movie theater with other people.  I did not know anyone of the ladies in attendance (to whom I referred to as “white suburban women” in an earlier post), but it was nice to be part of a collective group with a common goal.  We were here, together – elbow to elbow,  to watch a movie about figure skating.   Movie theaters have reported a decrease in revenue due to Netflix and other access to entertainment online (sorry, I do not have a reference), and that troubles me because what if theaters were to close down due to decreased attendance?  Where would we get our people fix?  Church?  Gag.  Is there not something magical about going to a movie theater and being there, transfixed into a fictional story line outside of your existence?  Getting the chance to escape “you” for nearly two hours?  I wish movies were not so expensive.  I mean… a movie in the evening and a soda pop is $20 for sure.   That’s a lot for some folks.  In conclusion, I think it’s important that we keep an eye on where we are headed as a society and what heritage we will leave for the next.  One last point:  NY Times had a few articles about Trump and Oprah, but the key take away from these was how did Trump impact our society and what comes next?  Shit has changed.  Very rapidly.  But, besides the political and governmental – I am more worried about the social.  Amen.