Being social without media.

I often think of the way we are evolving. One of the things that makes me sit up and stare, is the way we (don't) interact. Last weekend I was in Utrecht for the Comedy festival, a nice Town, the typical Dutch streets. There is something about being in another town that makes a person notice more than when walking the streets of their own neighborhood, and so it was that I noticed the interaction on the busy square where I sat to have lunch at a Café.
I was sat at a table, alone, waiting for my toasted sandwich and coffee to be served, looking around I noticed how many people were totally unaware of their surroundings or other people.
There were a few other tables like mine where one person was sat but four people could easily sit , Saturday afternoons are busy and there were people looking for places to sit, a few shed glances toward the tables where only one person was sat, but neither they or the person at the table talked or asked the question about whether they would like to share a table.
I saw three older ladies,  it turned out they were sisters, looking around so I waved and pointed at the empty three seats. They were so overjoyed at being able to sit , we laughed and joked about stuff for about 30 mins, they were from Friesland and were in town to watch 'Holiday on Ice' I joked that it's usually the other way around in Holland- with people going for a holiday on ice in Friesland.
A great meeting, good stories about their family and Friesland, we laughed and our ways parted. I even had three minutes of good comedy material out of it (....).
But what I'm trying to say is this, we seem to have lost the way about how we treat each other and how we interact.
We spend a lot of time on social media all day with people we are not with, some even with people they don't know, yet people who are around us we are hardly aware of. I find that strange.
We criticize politicians and we rant on social media about 'the way of the world' and then it springs to my mind- that old saying somebody very wise once said. 'Be the change you want to see' - and that is why I asked the ladies to join me at the table.
We can criticize society and politicians till the cows come home, but what do we do ourselves to make the world around us more bearable?