Share or Die Response - Blog Post #5

After looking through the Contents in Share or Die, one title really caught my interest.  It was under the Life section and read, Stranger Dinners.  As soon as I saw this, I went to page 105 right away and started reading.

The introduction starts off saying, “Dear Stranger,” and talks about how Ari should never be in contact with someone she personally doesn't know.  After that, the letter states how Ari may see you (a stranger) at a party, park, bar, etc., but she is too afraid to go talk to you because you seem busy and doesn't want to intrude.  Once finished with the introduction, Arianna Davolos, the author of this article, talks about the real world and how lonely she feels in it.

Arianna just graduated college and was excited to start in the “real world” and be stress-free with no school work; but she was wrong.  Arianna wanted to make art and came to realization that no one has time for that.  She recognized that college had not prepared her for actual reality.  In the real world, people don’t have time to waste.  People are kept busy with their jobs and basically work themselves to death. 

Then she asked herself, “Is this it?  You have a few friends, go to work, and have some fun?”  Arianna wanted to know how people lived their lives and pointed out that the internet has done a huge job sharing this.  Social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are ways we communicate about our personal life. 

Many of us may not realize this, but we are sharing information about ourselves to so many strangers on the internet.  Yes, we have friends that we know, but sometimes we just clip accept to get rid of the “friend request” button being highlighted.  The internet creates a barrier between our actual relationships with these people we are “friends with.”  We need to communicate more face-to-face with people because our social skills as a whole are going down the drain.  This is where Stranger Dinners comes in.

Arianna started to invite strangers to her house for a get together.  She wanted to see the gap from personal and impersonal, as well as social media versus in-person interactions.  Arianna wants to learn more about the world and other people in it, what their lives consist of, and creating personal relationships with people.

I honestly think this is a great idea!  It seems a bit scary at first, inviting people who you don’t even know over to your house, but once you get to know these strangers and get into specific details about their lives, you will feel like you have known them forever.  Plus, it is a way that society gets to know other aspects of the real world besides their own.  It creates good social skills between people and that is something that we lack as a whole.  More people should be trying this method.

Stranger Dinners may seem a bit out of the ordinary, but Arianna Davolos does a great job giving you tips on how to make this work.  She is finding a way to be active with her community and the members in it.  She is also learning about the real world besides her own everyday life.  Personally speaking, I think I should maybe even try this because even at college, you may be super busy and find yourself lonely at times.