Sincerely! If we say 'goodbye' now, people ask, "oh are you going on a long trip away from society"? "are you dying of a fatal disease!?"

Agreed, we've become an incredibly rude society for sure. I'm gonna go on a little rant here. It makes dating and meeting people so damned difficult. Everybody has become so busy BEING busy that its all about the soundbite now. Good luck making plans for meeting up spontaneously.

The impersonal nature of text messaging makes it so easy for "something to come up at the last minute" and there's no sincere apology, no explanation, no consideration for the feelings of the other person. Just words on a little screen. Each little "ding" indicating a new text message or email promotes little response bursts that says, "somebody cares about me". And lets hurry to check it and respond. And if they don't respond RIGHT BACK, it hurts.

And then whatever they were doing during the time they ignored you, its easy to get the message that "wait a second, they were doing X with Y, I guess that shows me how unimportant / insignificant I am to them".

I can really empathize with the struggle Seawhale is going through. They stop responding and you're like, "Is it something I said?" I wonder how productive we really are as a people, waiting for the next 'ding', avoiding talking on the phone or in person and having a real conversation. Now we have to make an appointment to talk to our friends on the phone.

Oh, hey Seawhale, what did you and the girl end up talking about before she abruptly left the conversation?