People love stopping me on the street, especially when I’m in a rush to get somewhere. And today was no exception when someone stopped me as I was walking to class, again no better a time. As a side note, when I’m walking around anywhere in public; town, shopping centers and even on the street, I rarely walk without my phone in my hand; 1. because I don’t wear a watch, though I really should and 2. because it’s just more fun to add more risk to crossing the roads and navigating car parks. Anyway away from the topic of why I need a watch, I was walking along replying to a text someone had sent me when a young man approached me and asked, “Wouldn’t you rather talk to a real person?”

Now at the time I was more concerned on the fact that someone had made their way into my personal space than answering the question, so I just looked and smiled and continued walking. But after actually thinking about the question as I went on I wished I had come up with a better answer, because random guy, I am talking to a real person. I am texting a real person. I have no idea what the reason was behind he’s questioning, most probably he was a student conducting survey research about ‘the effects of social media’ or ‘the consequences of smart phones’, but I find the question so annoying because just because I have to use a device to contact a person doesn’t make the conversation any less real. Also he drew the assumption that I was on social media, well what if I was looking at a map or playing candy crush? Would there be a problem with that? The thing is random guy there is a time and place to talk to real people, and that isn’t on the way to a 2:30pm lecture!