Chuck Klosterman wrote a wonderful essay (it's in his collection "Eating the Dinosaur") about laugh tracks, and more broadly, about the way we use laughter. His thesis was that, especially in the mundane interactions among strangers that populate daily (US) life, laughter is a nearly continuous stream that reassures everyone that both they and everyone else around them know what's going on.<p>Next time you're in a conversation with a group of people you don't know, stop and listen for the laughter - it will be hard to hear because you're so used to tuning it out, but it will be shocking in its frequency when you finally pick up on it. (NB: pointing the laughter out is a good way to alienate yourself from strangers.)<p>Klosterman talks a bit about his essay here: <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/10/17/chuck-klosterman-out-with-a-new-essay-collection-talks-seriously-about-laugh-tracks/" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/10/17/chuck-klosterman-o...</a>
The other thing that sometimes irks me is the social lubricating that "How are you?", "Good, how are you?" entails. I know people really don't care usually but I do care how someone is - are they happy in the present moment, are they present, what is interesting in their life...<p>I've managed to auto-pilot myself responding and have optimized at times to "Good, yourself?". It's almost as bad as Chuck Palahniuk's saying that people only ask about our weekend so they can tell us about their weekend. I think it is a necessary bare minimum for small talk though. And, I've gone into the dark side, I've started talking about the weather. It makes me wonder - at the canned responses - we all give out - how much of conversation can be on auto-pilot. I'm fascinated with conversational dynamics as I loathe to be the person who gets the group into a reverse tizzy, all pauses and nervous drink fondling. I think a lot of awkward conversations are auto-pilot as well. And the thing, for me, that distinguishes true, great conversations is their back-and-forth and seeming lack of cruise control. And I do find I can get a reasonable proxy for intelligent discussion that I can't get everyday through chatting (via IM) my good friends who are far away or HN. I do believe everyone has a few signature stories - if I get one out of a new acquaintance - I feel I've done my best - to be social.<p>A friend from a foreign country noted that we say "Thank you" so much in America it seems to lose its true value. Do we really need to say "Thank you" if a server refills our water glass? It seems to lessen the value of two words when someone does an unexpected favor.<p>"Thank you" for reading this.:)
Woah, this was a curious article, but it unexpectedly turned gloomy with this final, sudden excerpt: "A large-scale study … found optimism and sense of humor in childhood to be inversely related to longevity."
<p><pre><code> A large-scale study … found optimism and sense
of humor in childhood to be inversely related to
longevity.</code></pre>
:(<p>(If I've understood that correctly.)