Warmest Greetings,

Whatever You Do, Don't Say "Hi"  

:: Friday, January 16, 2004 ::

The very simple gesture of a greeting has the gone the way of black and white Television, homemade chocolate chip cookies and walking five miles to school (the latter of which was pretty much gone by the time I was born, thank God!)

Recently my daughter interviewed my parents for a school project. I videotaped part of it. One of the special moments I caught was when she asked them how different society is from when they were kids, which was between the 1930's and early 1960's. They brought up all kinds of things but the one that struck me the most was when my Dad said it makes him so sad that he can't say "Hello" to kids anymore. They're taught to be afraid of anyone they don't know, and their parents give him nervous looks. So, he stopped saying "Hi" and just keeps on walking (or running in his case, since he's a runner.)

The act of saying "Hi" has taken a beating in email communication too. I get so many emails every day from people I don't know with a subject line that simply says "Hi". The body of the email is an unsolicited ad, or it's a virus, or it's packed with porn photos or something bizarre like wierd symbols.

It's so bad I have a filter for all "Hi" email, so if someone I really do know just says "Hi" in the subject line, I'll never see it.

How did it happen that the Internet opened up the whole wide world, and shut it down at the same time?

- - - - - - - - - -

Today's entry will be short. I'm quite sure that's a relief! (I tend to babble). If you miss me too much, I wrote a fascinating piece for the SERound Blog called Behind Every Click Is A Person which is a must read.

(Just kidding.)

Have a great weekend!~

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 1/16/2004 04:09:10 PM

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