Social media is the way people live, network, and communicate in the world today. In 2.5 seconds you can find out what your best friend had for lunch, or how the traffic was in a nearby city. The problem with social media is that people are limited to the networks that they already belong in, and meeting new people online is often discouraged. In 2015, the UN created a holiday in which people from all over the world are encouraged to branch out and meet others to partake in “Dining Together Day”, a day of communion and getting to know one another.
Since the mandate, the world’s social network has become a super network. At the first dinner, my friends and I invited our friends Anja from Russia, Samantha from S. Africa, Tash from Wales, and Tatiana from Columbia to dinner. My friends and I met the girls at a summer camp in Hendersonville, North Carolina, while the girls were working abroad, most of them for the first time in the US.
The space used for the dinner was hard to find, but perfect for the occasion. The round dining table helps every person to face each other, unlike a rectangular table, where one would be directly facing the person in front of her. The circular table helps generate more conversation, as we all seem to notice more about the people sitting around the table, and less about the one centered in front of us. The booth like seating makes the formal event seem a little more casual; every one is comfortable and the comfy cushions seem to push everyone together a little closer. The sunken in table-booth makes for a really interesting view of outside through the floor to ceiling windows, and when its clear outside you have the best view of the sky without even having to look up. Luckily, the table opens up to the fireplace, where the Wind-Oh television-networking screen is placed over the mantle. The screen allows for everyone unable to attend physically, to still participate through a live web cast. The cameras on the screen allow those unable to attend to view the dinner, even zoom around the table to see each persons face, their food, their dress, etc.
Since the first dinner, we have only branched out. Though we still talk to the same friends from summer camp, our friends overseas have introduced us to their other friends via the Wind-Oh, making a friendly dinner of close friends become a communion between social networks. Now, five years later, our dinners have become social networking galas. We take time to meet those that we are dining with overseas. We introduce ourselves, our food, talk about clothing, world happenings; all seemingly normal, like we are all just friends meeting up for a casual dinner around a big circular table on a comfy couch. And that we are.
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