Anybody Here?

I can't seem to reach anybody...

I call them on their phones and they don't answer. I leave a message on a Facebook page and they don't answer or I forget to check because I have no internet access. I also don't own a Smartphone. Maybe that's the problem, I'm not connected.

When I used to have the internet, I was on Facebook and YouTube all the time. I even updated my MySpace page (a lot of good that does me now). Funny thing was, I never was in touch with people then. I had over eighty friends on my Facebook page and only two of them would actually talk to me. Others would just invite me to play Farmville or some such nonsense.

Now with no internet service, I email my friends once in a while. Most reply within a few days and I try to check my email at least a couple of times a week. But even email has lost its immediate connectivity, since everyone else is on instant messaging with their texting and apps. 

I never could keep up with technology. The first time I got the internet I was fifteen-years-old, in 1998, and I was still using dial-up while people in the city had cable speed. In 2012, I finally bought my own laptop, something that wasn't handed down to me but something I actually chose for myself. An Apple MacBook Pro, which I got for the GarageBand software and the iMovie, where I am constantly making up songs and movies to put on YouTube.

But back to the subject matter... Keeping in touch.
I just can't do it. I still don't know what kind of phone to buy, what service to get with what company, how many data packages I should look over, etc. There are too many choices with too little information and freedom. I've heard of companies double charging customers, limiting their data plans and over-charging when customers go over their data. I can't even keep track of the minutes I use on my old phone (350 I use out of my 4,000 allotted minutes). 

It seems easy for everybody else. All they do is get their phone, log-in to the millions of apps and pages they have and connect. I can't seem to do that. It's hard enough trying to keep a blog going and reading my personal emails, of which I have several accounts. I still have to visit the cafes for Wi-Fi since I still have no internet and can't sign up for a contract, etc. 

I just never thought it would be this hard to connect with people. I've missed so many parties, invites, etc. because I can't check my Facebook at the right time. I can't remember the last time I actually wrote a letter to someone...do people still do that? I don't even know what people do anymore. 

I seem to be out of touch with the whole world. I'm sorry to say I didn't even know about that bombing incident in Boston because I don't have a TV and I don't watch the news. I happened to take a break from the radio news and all I noticed were the American flags at half-mast. My Grandmother called to tell me about it before I left for Hawaii, because she was scared. I didn't even know what had happened...

Living alone, shut off from the world, makes you pretty ignorant. When you don't get out much and your friends are busy working and hanging out on their Smartphones, it's easy to be left out. You don't feel like joining anything 'cause most of the time you need the internet just to get invited. You can't keep up with the private messages 'cause you don't have a Smartphone, so you don't find out that your event has been canceled until you show up and nobody else is there. It puts a real damper on your social life. 

If I were an alcoholic, I could just go to the bars, find out what everybody is talking about there. But that is pretty limiting to me also, since there's only so much you can talk about in a bar. The cafes aren't much better, since everyone goes there to be alone or they are with their own friends. 

I guess I'm just not cut out to be sociable since I've been alone for most of my life. I'm always on the fringe of things and can never keep up with the rest of society. Sometimes I don't even bother... I just write stories, read books, listen to music and rent a few DVD's. Like I said, not very sociable. 

So if you see me on the street with a lost look on my face, don't be surprised. I just haven't figured out what's going on but that's nothing new to me. I'm more likely to make contact with aliens than I am with the rest of the human world. 

Anybody out there?