Today we refinanced and we were talking to a 25 year old kid. He was the loan officer. He was struggling with his computer and remarked how his grandfather told him that back in his day such transaction in a small town were done by shaking hands with the bank manager.
I hope someone writes on this and explains what we’ve gained and what we’ve lost by switching over to impersonal forms of communication. In the Ned Sublette book I’m reading, The Year Before the Flood, he remarks toward the end that New Orleans is a city where you see your friends constantly, eating with them, partying with them, second lining with them (a unique New Orleans public performance event in which anyone may join and is well presented in the HBO series Treme), whereas in New York, where he and his wife live, they may see their closest friends only once every few months.
What has this done to us?