Digital Diatribe

It was a volatile evening where everyone fidgeted incessantly with coasters; buttons; earrings; shoelaces; dead skin. The intended soiree of the month had dive-bombed into a melting pot full of immiscible specimens. The half full Champagne flutes were testament to the evenings discomfort; an unfinished glass of wine is completely different to the sacrilege of leaving Champagne. The bizarre pageantry of forced conversation only to be interrupted by yet another awkward exchange was saddening. A grim thing to imagine in the communication age where face-to-face conversation has been rendered expendable; everybody longing for connections and left with no choice but to feel sufficed by jostling strangers on the crowded streets. Walking home, the pulsating billboards installed in the sky reeled off brands, pearly whites lodged in charmless faces and unsubtle suggestion. Their light falls into the awaiting eyes of the eager millions coursing past on their way to somewhere else. The glowing words relentlessly burrow their way in and take hold like vicious, fastidious ticks. And so things went in the city that bridged the gap between two rivers; a collection of lives bookended by opposing currents.