What an enjoyable thread! You might as well name it after me.

I was socially inept most of my life (who am I kidding...I still am). Something(s) contributed to my having an incredibly stunted social development as a youth. With this type of thing, once one falls behind it gets harder to catch up. I never had the social resourcefulness to even know where social events were happening. I distinctly remember in school knowing social engagements were happening that very moment, but I would never be able to secure the slightest clue as to where they were much less get invited. I even remember my piano teacher making fun of me after he asked what I do on my free time.

Stick me in the middle of "bright lights, big city" and I'm wouldn't have the faintest idea of how to start to have a "wild night." I'm always wondering "is that fun?" It must be due to the high number of partakers. I doubt they're all pretending just to appear "cool." I'm not mocking them, and I'm really happy for them actually. Its a skill I'll never have to "be real tight with this guy who works at this club so we can always have a table and get our first round of drinks for free." I do admit I thought it looked really cool in the movies.

I have no problem understanding why one would prefer to be logged in here rather than hamming it up at a bar. After a while, one wants to converse with those who produce well thought out responses. When communication wasn't instant, people put more thought into what they would write in a letter. Now with text, email, cell phone...etc., words have become abundant and consequently of a much lesser value (or less thought behind them). Many of you here may've noticed your planned meetings are cancelled or postponed more often than earlier in your lives. Descartes wrote he preferred reading over conversing because the former communicated to him the most carefully constructed statements while the latter dropped many thoughtless thoughts upon him. With the effects of the many available avenues for instant communication, this is much more true than ever.

Dont forget people with young families who may not want to leave their child/children on their own with a sitter every weekend. I know I wouldnt.

Yeah, that was me in Elementary and Junior High school. Luckly High school and university were much better.


If this bright lights, big city happens to be Las Vegas, there are several adult clubs, casinos, hotels and pubs I can direct you to!


I'm not sure about you, but it is fun!


I like sitting behind a computer and chatting it up. I got lousy handwriting so writing a letter is out of the question.



Yep.


Didn't Derrida say that reading/writing is underprivelged because the person communicating is absent?

True. But for practical purposes, one can talk face-to-face with only those who live around him. They're brought up in a similar environment. Reading lets one "converse" with those of widely different culture, school of thought, and times. Face-to-face communication is mostly restricted to common conversation of which usually we have our fill with the normal amount. Isn't this why a lot of us are here? The wild nights seem more a release than anything of this nature. (Not to say a wild night here and there is bad!)

(I haven't gotten to Derrida yet. I may not have properly understood the context in which that point was made.)

What is a healthy social life?

Wild Friday nights are nice! Nothing wrong with getting drunk sometimes when our daily lives are filled with stress and exhaustion.
It's a personal choice, I agree. I only go out and party in minority of Friday nights, but these are fun ones. There are Friday nights I spend in books and internet forums such as this one. The best, however, would be a combination, discussing philosophy/politics with a few close friends, while sharing good wine, like a Greek symposium.

"Drink beer, think beer" so the German saying goes. When I go out, the last thing I want to talk about is Heidegger, even though he makes more sense after three stiff martinis.