In the future, there will be friendships consisting entirely in verbal form, with no digital record. These will be special, intimate, beyond anything analyzable by the machines we use on a regular basis today.

Kids will start doing this. It will feel fun and covert at first, but will gain a special meaning. Parents will be concerned about these special, secret friendships. If you have nothing to, why hide your knowledge of this person from the grand scheme of things?

We’ll have to meet these people in person, outside the view of digital security cameras. The most accidental of meet-cutes, without any digital pre-planning. We can trade addresses or names, but can’t trade email, or Facebooks, or Twitter handles, or phone numbers. The machines don’t own dates and times, so we can use those to coordinate, as long as we leave our phones at home.

“Future”, etc., what have you.