Friends and social life

How active is our social lives as compared to our previous generation - our parents?
Are we more social and friendly? Are we more reserved and formal? Have we lost the charm of dropping in, without making a phone call to check or seek permission, at a friend's place?

During college and hostel days (aah, those good old youthful days), a friend would drop in any time. No sense of timing, no questions asked. And it used to be fun as all of you will agree.

Then came the era of bachelor/spinster hood... when you are sharing a flat with a friend or even staying alone, a friend would drop in any time. Without any prior hints, and then you would figure out what to eat, whether cooking is feasible or should you go out and all ... but then also, there was no sense of timing, and no questions were asked.

Then one day you get married and have a proper family with spouse, parents/in-laws. Suddenly, the same friends would call up to ask, 'mein sochh raha tha milte hein'... arre yaar ... what has changed? In a family, one has more flexibility of arranging for food of course. There may not be the earlier luxury of weird sense of timings or endless chats for long hours, but still, there is enough time to catch up.

And earlier, when a friend just dropped in, you won't get any stress, instead, it would be fun. And now suddenly when friends start becoming rare and rarer at home, when they do come in, you are stressed - kya khayega, uski spouse ko yeh achha lagega ke nahin...

In this era of MySpace, Orkut and Blogspot, we communicate through writing - in the virtual world. No drop-in to catch up, no random phone calls to ask some useless questions. Meetings only with prior appointment - even if your schedule is not packed.

Don't know what the majority think, but I think it should be the way like hostel days. Just drop in, if there is some awkward situation, we will anyway figure it out how to solve it or take it in our stride. After all, friends don't expect you to treat them as guests, right ?

I still miss those of my friends who used to drop in exactly at the lunch hour :) And then we would end up sharing whatever was cooked for a single person, but it was fun, and you used to feel comfortable enough to ask a friend to join in even if you are in the middle of your meal. But, gone are those days ...

Need to revive the 'casual' social life, call few friends to chat on useless stuff.