The art of conversation

It's official: we have lost the art of conversation. I wonder, did we ever had it? Often, success in holding a conversation means being a good listener. Or else, it is being someone who can talk a lot of nonsense and making people laugh. Are we, have we ever been, good at being able to talk about things that matter and understand one another?

Conversation: A History of a Declining Art
Stephen Miller, 2006

Clearly, by conversation, I don't mean the chitter chatter that we still do. Or the twittering of teenage girls at the back of the car. It's the oddest thing. Put two or more teenage girls in the back of a car, and they twitter. Guys cannot twitter. If girls be birds, then guys are beasts. In a car, guys need to be driving, or else they will sit tensely still and gaze out the window. Or fidget. If we could, we'd prowl. So, if you put a guy together with a girl who twitters, then the guy basically have no choice but to ask her to marry him or something equally drastic. And of course, once married, the twittering turns into something else. Now, if we learn to converse, then these things won't happen. We'd be able to talk and actually understand one another. And not have to get married just because.

The internet has come to the rescue, as it has in so many other ways. The best and easiest way to converse today is to blog. When you blog, you get to think carefully of what you are going to say. You even get to go back and change your words. People can respond as they might and you get to choose who to respond back to. It's conversation without all the pitfalls.

I've realised that there are only a number of ways to write a successful blog. By which I mean a blog that is widely read - like xiaxue's. One of them is to write it like a magazine - specialising in reviews about computers, environment and dieting. People read this because they are interested in the topic you are covering. It's a one-stop for the latest, plus a bit of humour and personality. The other way is to be so very funny. It helps, in this case, to be a pretty girl. I don't know why, but it helps. Sometimes, you don't even have to be funny, just be a pretty girl. Pretty boys don't hack it, I'm afraid. In this case, people drop by because they can associate with what is said, share a joke or two, and pass the time. Don't ask me why people, both men and women, find it easier to associate, even over the internet, with a pretty girl than with just about anybody else. They just do. The third way is to have a lot of friends. Or fans. Famous people are simply interesting. So everything they have to say is worth listening to, even if they say the silliest or most obvious things.

Which takes us to the teen blog. Teenagers do not converse. They rave and rant. They have enough of listening (to parents, teachers, and just about every adult they meet). They need to have their say. Without any proper channels to vent their feelings, teenagers blog. Visit a teen blog and you will not know what they are on about. You are not required to know, in any case. All their tags are complimentary ones, from friends, righting and spotting them on. And they tag one another. Teen blogs are basically a support group. All fine and good. But I am no longer a teenager. And through this blog, I've realised my soul yearns for conversation. G.K. Chesterton puts it best:

Orthodoxy
G.K.Chesterton, 1908

Friends, Romans and countrymen, talk to me.