I am not trying to walk in the footsteps of human ethologist like Desmond Morris,but ethologist use the term "ritualized contact" to explain the various displays a pair of animals may engage in as part of an elaborative affectve or agonistic social interaction; mountain goats,for examp[e,will clash horns as they prepare to mate or aggress. As the cross-culturai dude on Tips,U.S society is full of contactual paradigms with explicit and implicit behavioral expressions-be it verbal and non-verbal autonomously.Whether they are expressions like "You're welcome", "Nice day,eh?",Americans appear to follow a strict set of ritualized behavior and and expressions that are responded to that their meanings should not be taken seriously.I am reminded of the works of Marshall McLuhan and of a work by William Lederer,A nation of sheep where Lederer points out that U.S is more like a flock of sheep-lots of followers.Facebook could be viewed as the quintessential ritualized contact symbol.Just as the alleged biblical phrase that one can not get to God except through Christ,the current zeitgeist appears to be that one cannot get any meaningful activity done without going through Facebook. When everybody think alike,nobody is thinking.
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