Crunch Time!

I have this weird personality flaw where when there're too many things to do, I choose to do none of them. It's like playing hide and go seek, and if I can't see them, they can't see me. But then I have enough self motivation that right before it becomes absolutely necessary, I finish my task. The stress becomes so much the heavier that I break down and quit my procrastination to do whatever it is I need to do. This can help and this can hinder. It's become very apparent that I work very well under pressure, and I've learned to crunch everything into small pockets of time to get things done. But in the obvious flip side, I can't manage time to save my life. With this said, I think we all grow impatient at times, wanting to do things now, have the cake before it's cooked, and be finished before they even start. I can completely understand that. I think we find shortcuts to things that are supposed to be taken slowly, and for the most part, it works out pretty well. "How can I make this quicker?" we ask ourselves, fitting as many small tasks into an hour as possible. And with this, I think we want love to happen just as fast. "But I'm doing the right things" we say. Somehow knowing what we want means that we should have it. But people aren't something you can force around. Most people need time, even if you don't.
 I really do hate this new generation of fantastic technology that can allow us to "talk" to anyone, at anytime, and in any place. The truth of it all is that no one TALKS anymore! We find abbreviations, shortcuts, paraphrases, synonyms, and even letters that are supposed to mean the same thing, but in all actuality it's no proper substitute. Really honestly, when was the last time you had a long meaningless conversation with someone? "But I have no time!" we murmur, but what happened to all that time we save by having our amazing technology? No, we have time, we just forgot how to manage it. Everything out of the blue has become so important, and yet the importance hasn't changed, only our perception OF the importance. We create this crazy world where if something goes wrong, we are the only ones that anyone can rely on. We need to feel important, and so we keep our phones on us at all times, we check our networking sites constantly, we read our emails, read our texts, read our tweets hoping and praying that maybe someone will need us, need our time, need our input, need our assistance, because we all want to be needed, even when we're unwilling to help. What happened to all those real friends you had? What happened to putting everything on hold for the people you cared about? Frankly, I've been terrible at this. The occasional text message, the 'like' on a status, the random email every two or three months. This thing we call technology has turned us into gratification seeking drones, and while we are, we can never remember how nice it was to be there for someone.
I have a friend outside of the social network. He calls me every week. We talk about his life, what he's doing, how he's doing, and his view on the whole thing, and for a brief second I feel human again. Because we aren't human anymore, we are letters on a page, we are funny emoticons, we are the distanced, and we are refuse. We are no longer unique because we can only say what the buttons and keys allow us to say. So many conversations of one word answers, hanging conversations, and impolite abandoning turn us from human to machine, because we just don't care anymore. A computer will never show love, no matter how many buttons you give it.
It just makes me sad. I sit here wondering what can be done about this new life we all live. The truth is, nothing. We are still free agents, we have choice, we have freedom, and there is no word I can type to make people understand what it is to be a true friend, to be there for someone. Those that I love, and those that I care for KNOW that I am there for them, and when they need me, or even think they need me, I am there. But that is not common, in fact it is anything but. I hope that we learn as the human species that our only true joy will come from that special and palpable connection of one on one communication. You wouldn't let someone else talk for you, so why would you let a machine do it?
Take your time. Maybe it can all be crunched into a philosophy in a tea cup.