{"id":1090,"date":"2019-05-09T06:00:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T06:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2025-03-21T12:02:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T12:02:22","slug":"brick-and-mortar-human-beings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick and mortar human beings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<aside class=\"other-formats\">Other formats: <a title=\"Brick and mortar human beings (PDF)\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/ebooks\/en\/pdf\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/aside>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings.png?resize=1024%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Brick and mortar human beings - Illustration by B\u00f6rkur Sigurbj\u00f6rnsson\" class=\"wp-image-1091\" style=\"width:250px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings.png?w=1025&amp;ssl=1 1025w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Illustration by B\u00f6rkur Sigurbj\u00f6rnsson<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so fed up with social media,\u201d announced Tom\u2019s hoarse voice, interrupting what I considered to be a sacred Sunday morning silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOk?\u201d I uttered, looking up from the weekend papers, that were spread out in front of me on the dining table, not entirely sure if I was really interested in listening to a further elaboration of the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tom lay on the sofa, staring at his mobile phone, wearing his usual weekend outfit, a non-matching, two-piece tracksuit, with his unruly hair stretching into space like an ill-kept, dried-up fern. He had hardly left that sofa since yesterday evening when he started his solitary whisky drinking session, accompanied with his 100th re-run of the original Star Wars trilogy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want to interact with brick and mortar human beings,\u201d Tom continued without taking his eyes off his Facebook feed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou mean flesh and blood?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUgh, no. Blood gives me the creeps. Haven\u2019t you ever heard the expression <em>brick and mortar<\/em>? It\u2019s used to refer to real things as opposed to virtual, online things. I\u2019ve seen it used a lot on the Web. That\u2019s what I\u2019m talking about. I want to interact with real people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOk, whatever, let me see if I can set something up for next Sunday. We could do brunch with John and Betsy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOh, no, not John and Betsy. I find them so incredibly boring. Always babbling on and on about some economics bullshit. Morgue-rate this. Infiltration-rate that. I prefer John and Betsy as Facebook friends\u2014where I can mute them. But you go ahead. Tell them I\u2019m sick or something. I\u2019ll be here playing PlayStation or whatever. Don\u2019t worry about me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI won\u2019t,\u201d I muttered as I returned my attention to the papers. \u201cFor sure, I won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-group book-ad has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#000000;background-color:#65aab1\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:33% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"820\" height=\"735\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/book_covers.png?resize=820%2C735&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"B\u00f6rkur Sigurbj\u00f6rnsson's book covers\" class=\"wp-image-1796 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/book_covers.png?w=820&amp;ssl=1 820w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/book_covers.png?resize=300%2C269&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/book_covers.png?resize=768%2C688&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/book_covers.png?resize=500%2C448&amp;ssl=1 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>If you enjoyed the content on this page, we encourage you to support the publication by purchasing a copy of a book by the author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>B\u00f6rkur Sigurbj\u00f6rnsson publishes books as paperbacks on <a href=\"http:\/\/amazon.com\/author\/borkurdotnet\">Amazon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/s\/%22B%C3%B6rkur%20Sigurbj%C3%B6rnsson%22\">Barnes and Noble<\/a> and e-books on <a href=\"https:\/\/books.apple.com\/us\/author\/b%C3%B6rkur-sigurbj%C3%B6rnsson\/id565639117\">Apple Books<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/amazon.com\/author\/borkurdotnet\">Amazon Kindle Store<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/gb\/en\/search?query=B%C3%B6rkur%20Sigurbj%C3%B6rnsson&amp;fcsearchfield=Author\">Kobo<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.storytel.com\/in\/authors\/b%C3%B6rkur-sigurbj%C3%B6rnsson-709165\">Storytel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also support the author through  <a href=\"https:\/\/buymeacoffee.com\/borkur\">Buy Me a Coffee<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/patreon.com\/UrbanVolcano\">Patreon<\/a> or by rating his books on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/borkurdotnet\">Goodreads<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-horizontal is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-499968f5 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/category\/books\/\" style=\"border-radius:50px;color:#ffffff;background-color:#000000\">book details<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A flash fiction by B\u00f6rkur Sigurbj\u00f6rnsson. Hung-over Tom makes an announcement interrupting the sacred Sunday morning silence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flash-fiction","tag-human-behavior","col-md-6 col-sm-6"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/brick-and-mortar-human-beings.png?fit=1025%2C1025&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2225,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions\/2225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}