i don’t know what is happening with human communication, but it feels like it’s becoming more vacuous. Or maybe it’s just me. But I must be responding to something out there.

For example, a facebook friend has liked one of my latest updates, and then added a comment, “adore this,” and then sent me a message, “love this!!!!,” and then shared it with her friends with very high praise of me… but this person will have nothing to do with me outside of facebook. it feels like a puzzle i can’t seem to solve… there’s a meaning either hidden somewhere between the likes, the comments, the 2-word messages with exclamation points, the shares… or maybe it’s somewhere on the surface. But whatever meaning there is eludes me. it’s a mystery, even in its obviousness.

And I am completely confused about how to interpret XO’s or XOXO’s. Is it a shorthand for something that would happen in the physical world? Or is XO just kind of an auto-pilot friendlier way to close a message, something warmer than “sincerely” or “best” or “regards” … while holding a safe distance from “love so-and-so”?

And then I sometimes notice myself doing the same thing. Almost as if I have been programmed. Which would mean that now I should be deprogrammed, debriefed.