Is this like snail-Facebook

Is Starbucks the social networking equivalent of snail-mail, sort of a snail-Facebook or snail-IM? I got to thinking about that the other morning while walking my dog past the local Starbucks n Milord, Michiga. I pass by it nearly every morning and I’ve noticed that there are ”regulars” who show up every morning and sit around talking to each other – a strange concept in these days of IM and Facebook and Twitter and other social networks.

It’s sort of like the tongue-in-cheek ads that Colin O’Brien did for his show when he took over the Tonight Show, where he tried to reintroduce the concept of watching video on something other than your cell phone or computer – it is call TV. As he put it, it’s just like watching on those other devices, only more comfortable and in a bigger format. Maybe going to Starbucks every morning and actually sitting there and talking to other people is just like IM or Facebook or Twitter, only more personal and interactive and you can actually see the other person. Imagine that.

We have become a society of people who have isolated ourselves behind the anonymity afforded by the Internet, preferring to tap away at a keyboard or screen, rather than actually directly talking to another person. There is some weird sense of empowerment that comes from hiding behind a screen name and lobbing comments or criticisms or opinions into the ether that is the web. Even when full profiles are available for all to view, it somehow seems less real and less threatening than a face-to-face conversation.

That’s really a bit sad. So, maybe Starbucks and other coffee gathering places perform an unintended but valuable service for the people who go there and give them a few moments in their days when they become human beings again and not just “Mama Mia” or “MortgageMan” or whatever screen name you’ve chosen for yourself. Try it some time. You’d be amazed how satisfying snail-Facebook can be. Can I get a double Latte with two shots of Mocca please.