So I decided to spend my Thanksgiving break in Canada, America's hat with a reduced drinking age. I drove up here with my best friend, and we decided to go bar hopping a bit. The first night was kind of a bust, we don't know anyone here, and Toronto culture is inherently clique-oriented (cold weather, cold people). However, the next night was incredible because we magically knew a native who was willing to show us how to have a good time in his territory. If anyone throughout the night asked how we knew each other, the answer was simple, "through a friend of a friend." Secretly though, we were acquainted through the magic of social networking on reddit. Now, my readers, you're probably screaming "stranger danger" in your heads, but rest assured, I'm still alive and the only negative to our night out is a wicked hangover that I now have to power through to finish this blog post on time.
Before coming up to Canada (Toronto specifically), my friend decided to check out the location specific subreddits for Toronto. After asking around a few threads as to what could possibly be done while we're up here, he managed to find someone who was particularly helpful. After that, information was exchanged through a series of private messages and emails. Once we got up here, we decided it would be a good idea for our nameless friend to have a contact number. A stipulation of my wireless plan is that I can send and receive SMS messages regardless of roaming charges, so we decided to give him my number. With communication now simplified, it was no problem meeting up with our friend and the night commenced, with a stint at Toronto's oldest bar and a crawl through the hippest area you could possibly find in a country so cold. I've said multiple times throughout my Computers and Society writing career that I'm a citizen of the internet, and, just as you know not to walk with your wallet out in deep Harlem, there are certain common sense rules to ensure your safety when on the internet. Everything about this situation set off some sort of flag. Stranger? Check. Older than us? Slightly. Is willing to meet up? Something's wrong with this fellow. However, to get a good night going in any way, you have to know people from the area, so we basically had no choice but to meet this stranger in a strange country. It's interesting to see how internet safety has become so ingrained in our culture that it may seem even a little counterproductive when you think of the internet as a tool to bring people closer together. It must have something to do with the stranger scares of the 90's, when the internet was still in its infancy. Now I'm not saying the internet is completely safe, or that you should just meet up with any random person. I took a risk, a gamble, and it worked out really well for me. Your results may vary.
This is my last post. It's been a pleasure writing these. The 600 word minimum was definitely a sweet spot, but it's been hard to vary up topics without seeming too bland. I could easily have written about the inflation of bitcoin or about the incredible violations of privacy committed by the NSA, but I figured it would just be more interesting to hear about more personally relevant things. We do have a tendency of abstracting ourselves from the things that effect us. Anyway, hopefully ya'll enjoyed what I've had to say as much as I've enjoyed saying it. Now it's time for me to spend 9 hours in a car, driving back home to the good old U S of A. God Bless America.
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