Social Anthropology

As I observe him, I imagine that this is typical of him and his friends. The lights are dim, and he sits in front of a computer screen. “Come here, let me show you this video card, it makes the graphics run so smoothly!” Excitement, it’s clear to me that he’s grown tired of showing this to his girlfriend, she stands in the kitchen ignoring our exchange.

“Oh my god!! Look at the graphics on this video! The creators of this game are amazing!” Honestly, it looks like a high tech cartoon; I have no idea what to say. “Wow! How cool!” He smirks, and I know that we both know I’m lying, but he’s impressed that I have the etiquette to not tell him so. His girlfriend comes around the corner, “She doesn’t care love. We’re going for a walk, maybe to the store? Sound good?” He smiles, kisses her and gets right back into the game.

On our walk, I decide to get her view point. I ask a few questions, and she smiles “Thank god it entertains him; I wouldn’t know what to say if he wanted to talk computers. That’s not what we have in common, it’s the music.” It is Interesting to me that she is so separate from this part of his life. “Oh no, not at all, I have my own characters, I just don’t get the whole fantasy thing. And I have no idea what a video card is, don’t pretend you do!” We laugh, and subjects drift.

About an hour later we wander back in to the apartment. There he is, still hunched over the keyboard, fingers move like lightening back and forth across the keys. I hear him mumble to himself, a few expletives and exclamations of frustration. He is smoking, and the smoke twirls like a lonely ghost of a ballerina next to the monitor. “HI HONEY” his girlfriend screams, mischievous glance telling me she just wanted to see him jump.

I wander back over to him, “So, tell me what this is?” I notice a box at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Bluescreenofdeath says to Deathm4u5 “you totally got pwned!!!” I laugh; what could any of that mean?

The man, happy to...