…looks around, sees that the person she is meeting isn’t there yet, freaks a little, and then pulls out her phone. Yes, this is you! Don’t even try to deny it. I’m not. I will openly admit that I will even pretend (yeah, pretend) to be looking at important emails (see mom and dad, acting classes did pay off!) when I am really twittering, facebooking, wordpressing, etc.

And I can’t even lament the “good ole days before all these whippersnappers had their i-this and i-thats.” I was 13 when I got a cellphone…well, a kind of a cellphone. I had a horrible excuse for a cellphone that was the Tracfone, where you had to load the phone with calling card minutes…and it always ran out just when you really needed it. But, yeah, I pretty much have known adult life with the ability to text, talk and bbm (all while driving…kidding of course!).

But doesn’t that weaken our human connection in a way? And by human connection, I mean ability to flirt face to face. None of this “flirt” bullshit where someone is clicking a prewritten message and sending it to the 10 cutest girls that they see on jdate/match/okcupid/eharmony…and on and on. I mean honest to goodness, I am looking across a room and so is that guy and our eyes meet and maybe we go and talk to each other because of it- that kind of flirting! I am going to call myself out for weakening human contact though. I am guilty of pulling out my cellphone and avoiding people when I walk to the mailroom or Trader Joe’s each day. But recently, I have tried a little something new. Putting my stupid phone away and actually smiling at people. No matter who they are. No matter if they are fat,ugly, thin, tall short, blue, bloody, hairy (you would be surprised with some of the crazy things I see…and not just working on a film lot).

For some reason we have all grown so dependent to staring down at this little metal (possibly) cancer causing objects that when a stranger smiles at you for no reason, it is like they have gunned down your first born and taken your second born for a $1,000,000 ransom. Some do smile back. It’s fun. So, for the 3 of you out there that are reading, try it out. Go ahead, I dare you! Or is it challenge (I never could remember- one of them means I don’t have to do it, the other I am doing as well. So whichever I am apart of, do that!) Next time your friend can’t find street parking and circles the block for 8 minutes until they surrender to the valet, put that phone away. Try smiling and see what it gets you. Maybe you will get weird stares, maybe you will meet a new friend, or maybe TLOYL will send over a drink. Who knows? But that is my point exactly, who knows until we disconnect ourselves. You might just find someone to poke you in real life!