How Tech Killed the Cocktail Party

Years ago, when I first got into the writing business, whenever I went to a cocktail party, a BBQ, or other social function, people would always ask me to write their stories.

During the initial small talk, when we’d go through the routine “so what do you do for a living?” after I said my bit, inevitably someone would always start telling me their whole life story.

No kidding – we’d go from “hi, nice to meet you,” to suddenly the person telling me about their childhood, secret unfulfilled high school crush, to how they just killed their boss and were wondering where to hide the body.

Well, maybe not the last one – but looking back on those days, I’m amazed at how open and frank people were, revealing their inner-most personal experiences with me, seeing as we’d only just met.

I heard some interesting stuff --I think. 

My mind usually wandered during those experiences, half-listening to what this complete stranger was confessing to me, half-listening to the others around me, as I desperately looked for a way of escape.

At the time, I didn’t like being cornered by someone I’d just met, having their whole life story forced upon me. I’m not anti-social, just as with most of us, it takes time to get to know someone.

But back then, tell someone you’re a writer, and they’d assume their story had the next New York Time’s Bestseller prize written all over it, and they’d want you to write it.

Times have certainly changed – thanks a lot technology.

Now when I tell people I write, they tell me they do too. They write blogs, podcasts, have their own YouTube channel, or post to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any of the other social networks.

They brag about the number of friends, fans and followers they have reading their posts. They tell me about the process of writing, asking if it is the same thing I go through in creating my work too?

They don’t need me to tell their stories anymore, because they get to tell them in their own words and way.

Thanks to technology, everyone is their own publisher and producer. All you need these days to tell your story is a computer, an Internet connection and the time it takes to hammer it out on the keyboard.

No longer do I get pulled into a dark corner at a cocktail party by a complete stranger, and force fed his or her stories about their misunderstood youth, the prom date that never showed up, or their lost lucky sock that they finally found and have never taken off to this day – ew – and other whacky things that happen to us all.

Well, except the last one -- I don’t have a lucky sock.