Dancing With Myself

Last night, Huzbin and I were wondering, what can we do for cheap around here? I googled "free NYC" and got a website called freenyc which lists all kinds of free and cheap events around the city. So after a dinner at Otto paid for with a gift card (thank you Rebecca and Mario!) Joe and I walked up to Union Square, where I'd heard about an event called "Silent Rave." I'm sure you all know about Flash Mobs by now and this is a variation on that theme. The way it's done is that everyone shows up to a previously decided upon spot, and in this case, brings their own iPod charged and loaded with their favorite songs. Everyone wears their own headphones and dances to their own music. To onlookers, the event is entirely silent. The following video will show you.

Huzbin and I didn't dance, but we did watch breakdancers and even a limbo contest (if 2 or more comments request the limbo vid, I will post it). Someone started a drum circle (damn hippies!) and so you can hear that in the background, but these people really stuck with the silent theme.

Of course this all leads me to philosophize about the youth of today. One can argue that things like text messaging and IM and Facebook are making people less social. One can also argue that these things are making people more social, but less apt to be able to interact in physical social situations. This event was totally odd to me, because I could clearly see both sides of the coin happening at once. The event was originally posted on Facebook, but hundreds of people showed up. They were (mostly) all listening to their own music, but they were dancing together. This isn't entirely different from a club, where the music is way too loud to converse with anyone, so you just dance. So I wonder, is it the future to be entirely on your own? And is this really a bad thing? New York City lends itself to anonymity, and is one of the most populated places on Earth. What's the difference if we find out about a club which costs $20 to get in, or whether we bring our own music and interact in the same way?