Editing 2196: Nice To E-Meet You

{{comic
| number    = 2196
| date      = August 30, 2019
| title     = Nice To E-Meet You
| image     = nice_to_e-meet_you.png
| titletext = I'm inside your head and I hate it. Please let me out.
}}

==Explanation==

In this comic, [[Cueball]] is considering how to greet someone online.

At first, Cueball considers simply saying "Nice to meet you!", a typical greeting used when meeting someone in person. However, he notes that since the introduction is taking place electronically, saying that he is actually "meeting" them is inaccurate; he duly discards the greeting.

Next he considers replacing the word "meet" with "e-meet." The use of "{{w|Internet-related prefixes#"E-"|e-}}" as a prefix for anything related to electronics was a popular naming trend in the early 1990s, such as {{w|eWorld}}, {{w|eBay}}, and as a standardized shorthand for {{w|Email|electronic mail}}. Earlier cyberpunk novels, such as 1984's ''{{w|Neuromancer}}'', did not use the "e-" prefix, as they were written before that linguistic trend, while the prefix generally fell out of fashion by the 2000s. Cueball using the phrase "e-meet" thus sounds anachronistic to the 1990s, and he recognizes it, discarding his greeting again.

He then decides that he needs to throw off the shackles of normal conversation and simply "be normal." Being a geek, Cueball therefore writes up a long-winded exposition of how strange electronic communication actually is in terms of the photons being projected by the computer screen, comparing it to his hands touching the receiver's eyes, then concludes the greeting with a simple "Anyway, hi." This might be off-putting to a friend that Cueball had just now met. This makes it funnier that Cueball believes he just "nailed" his greeting; he clearly has no idea what he is doing.

The title text continues the theme of "his hands touching the receiver's eyes"; [[Randall]] is talking about how as a construct that your mind makes, he  is now "inside your head"-- and taking it that statement to its logical conclusion, he "wants to get out."

The comic discusses how adhering to conversational convention during social interactions can be quite difficult, especially with the advent of new technology. Social awkwardness is a [[:Category:Social interactions|recurring theme]] in xkcd.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at his desk on an office chair, while typing at his laptop. The line he is writing on the computer is shown with white text in a black box up at the top of the panel while his thoughts shown in a thought bubble with small bubbles going to it from his head.]
:Text: Nice to meet you!
:Cueball [thinking]: That sounds weird; we’re not actually meeting in person.
:Laptop: Type type 
:Laptop: Delete delete

:[Same setting:]
:Text: Nice to e-meet you!
:Cueball [thinking]: What is this, a 1995 cyberpunk novel?
:Laptop: Type type 
:Laptop: Delete 

:[Cueball stops typing and leans back resting an arm on the back of the chair while looking at laptop, no black box shown.]
:Cueball [thinking]: OK.
:Cueball [thinking]: Chill.
:Cueball [thinking]: Just be normal.

:[Cueball resumes typing a much longer text in two black boxes, one large with five lines of text, and a small below with one line.]
:Text: It’s weird to think that the words I’m typing will be projected onto your retinas. It’s like my hands are touching your eyes.
:Text: Anyway, hi.
:Cueball [thinking]: Nailed it.
:Laptop: Type type 

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]