Relationship by Technology

A week ago, I walked over to my desk after being in a long morning meeting to find a stuffed animal elephant waiting for me. He looked friendly enough, and he was wearing a name tag from Presbyterian Hospice. Now, I wasn't sure how or why this elephant--Herman--had come to be waylaid at my desk, and I wasn't really sure what to do with him, but I let him stay...

For about thirty minutes, until someone came over and dumped six binders of reports from 2006 on my desk, and then my desk was full, with no room for Herman. At this point, I had to make a decision: do I stash this cuddly creature under my desk until his owner comes by, or do I find out who left him here, and why?

Because I'm a naturally curious human being, I opted to send an email out to the whole company via work BlackBerry:

From: Megan
To: Hospice Care
Sent: Tue Jul 07 11:21:39 2009
Subject: Elephant

Who left the elephant on my desk?

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From: Anita
To: Megan
Sent: Tue Jul 07 11:28:27 2009
Subject: Re: Elephant

Bereavement. Can you make him a Hospice Care badge?

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Okay, so, mission accomplished. I took Herman's photo, popped his picture into the database, created a name badge, and delivered him back to the bereavement department for... whatever use he might have.

Today, I walked upstairs to grab a new load of laundry. On my bed, there was a plastic raft. I know what the raft is for--pool hang out in Hawaii. I know that it was left for me by either my mother or my sister-in-law. But I reach for my Storm to find out who the culprit is...

And that's when it hits me. I have traded in personal, face-to-face relationships with people for virtual, technological relationships. My sister-in-law was across the hall. My mother was downstairs. It would only take a few steps to figure out which one of them left it for me... but my first (and errant, because my mother can barely pick up a text message, and hasn't read her emails in years) reaction was to grab my phone and use that as the go-between.

It's not that I'm suddenly against texting, emailing, Google chatting, BlackBerry Messangering, etc, etc. I LOVE all those things. I mean, do you know anyone else who will be chatting with someone by google chat AND by text... just because? I'm just awed by my instinct to avoid human contact. I want to have personaly relationships supplemented by technology... not defined by and lived through it.