What are you doing right *now*?

I had this hilarious thought during Sunday school today. Kinson was talking about communication, about how it's like 10% words, 30% tone of voice, and 60% body language when Stan asked about how the numbers were now that there was telephone, email and chatting.

Anyway the thought I had was what it would be like if you were chatting on MSN with someone and they could see everything that you were doing at the time of your conversation. Please keep in mind that this is just an example and I am not doing all the things nor implying that you are doing the same things when we're chatting.

I pictured a guy and a girl sitting in front of eachother talking. Behind the girl would be 3-4 other people, also talking to her. And the girl would be doing her hair while reading a book, and occasionally another person would walk over and show her some clothing.

Meanwhile the guy would be reading a car magazine while cutting his toenails, sitting in his underwear and have music playing in the background. There'd also be 3-4 other people behind him talking to him as well, and there'd be a FutureShop representative walking in and out showing him things.

I mean let's face it, when we talk to eachother we have no idea what the other person is thinking, doing, or feeling. For all we know, there's no one there and just some machine typing out random messages of "lol" and "hahaha" and "sup?". We may not even be talking to who we think we're talking to.

I used to pose as Lon and talk to his friends on his laptop when he wasn't home. None of them could tell it was me until I started talking about eating poo.

I guess this is a post about communication, and also multitasking. There are definitely times that when I am having a meaningful conversation with someone, or conversing with someone who is important to me, that I stop everything else I'm doing and focus on the conversation. But there are also times when I talk to 4-5 different people at once and find myself having to scroll up to remember what that person was talking about.

Back before MSN/ICQ, if you talked to 4-5 people at once, that would be considered rude. If you cut your toenails while talking to someone, that would be disgusting. Talking with your mouth full was also a no-no. Back then, you couldn't talk to someone while you were naked, or brushing your teeth, picking your nose, q-tipping your ears, plucking your eyebrows, etc etc etc.

Brings new meaning to the expression "ignorance is bliss" doesn't it?