Intelligent Conversation

Obviously, this has nothing to do with American Idol!

I long for intelligent conversation. I have, ever since I hit adolescence. Oh, not all the time - we need time to laugh and gossip and talk about silly things, too. But if I could look forward to some intelligent conversation from time to time - once a week might be enough - I'd feel a lot more complete.

Polite chitchat drives me nuts. I joined an online depression group, hoping for the kind of stimulating and intelligent conversation I used to get twelve years ago on another group (it's still there; the intelligence, however, disappeared long ago). All I found was the daily sign-ins, which are the height of superficiality. You say good morning, they offer you fake cups of coffee or tea. I post about my issues in other parts of the forum, but the responses I get are superficial and flaky. Remember cyberhugs? (((((((you))))))). Sigh.

So this morning I Googled "intelligent conversation" to see what would come up.

First? A column from onlinedatingmagazine.com, called "The Dying Art of Intelligent Conversation." It had received one response.

Second? A business - a consulting service. I didn't stick around long enough to find out what they were selling.

The third was an item on a 43things.com list, "have an intelligent conversation". I once had my own list on that website. I lost interest because I'm perfectly able to create my own list of goals offline.

Fourth was an article from 1998 about finding intelligent conversation online. Back then, I was finding it.

Fifth was a quiz from OKCupid. I did the quiz, but it wanted me to join to find out my results. How intelligent is that?

And so it went. I didn't look too closely at "How to Have an Intelligent Conversation with a True American" because the phrase "true American" puts me off. It sounds too right-wing. One of the videos that showed up was "Britney Spears Drunk" - clearly the opposite of intelligent conversation. Really, what was I expecting?

It would have been nice to find a forum that said "come here for intelligent conversation." I could post an issue I was struggling with, and people would respond intelligently. Oh, well, I suppose it wouldn't be the Internet, then...