Nice to meet you

Is it me or has the idea of traditional dating all but disappeared?

Now it's all texting and IM's, notes on websites and match.com. What ever happened to meeting someone in the supermarket? or at a book store? What happened someone coming up to you in Starbucks? does that just not happen any more or is it just that it doesn't happen to me?

The reason I ask this is that I'm watching You've Got Mail and I find it truly bazaar that Internet dating has become such a normal thing. Don't people interact anymore? we have to sit in front of a computer to feel connected?

Granted I'm as much as fault as anyone, I talk to more people online than I do at real life (although as an unemployed person who has no money to go anywhere, I consider this more of a temporary set back than anything) but when you think back to how it used to be...my Grandparents met on the train to London, My Parents met at work...does that still happen?

I hope so. In a world where you're never unplugged or disconnected I get the feeling that people just don't know how to interact any more. Making eye contact with someone sends them into a spin, do I smile? nod? ignore them? run in the opposite direction?

I used to take the train into London every day for a month, and not once did anyone talk to me. If I made eye contact with someone, I would smile, they would look away. No one talked. The train could get stopped in a tunnel and still people wouldn't talk, just stare at their feet or listen to their ipod.

So I guess what I'm saying is, that if you see someone you like the look of at Starbucks, or in the cereal isle at Kroger, smile, say hello...you never know where it could lead.