‘Out of the loop’ and proud of it

Dear Miss Manners: I am in desperate need of your sage advice concerning friends/acquaintances who continually chide my husband and me because our lives do not revolve around sitting at a computer all day.

We are educated, retired and attend many social functions with retired friends, where conversation invariably leads to stories of how much time they spend on the computer at home every day. Also about blogs, iPods, cable/dish television and radio, etc. We are avid readers, enjoy nature and bird watching, walking, interacting with our grandchildren and neighbors, attending theater and philharmonic and, most importantly, we converse. We often frequent our local library, watch PBS and listen to NPR.

We do have an old computer that I occasionally use for e-mail only (but am not online), and do not subscribe to cable/dish nor own iPods.

We would never dream of telling them not to spend so much of their precious time in life sitting in front of a computer. Yet we are on the receiving end of their endless, and often arrogant, remarks about how we are “out of the loop.”

Gentle Reader: What makes you think it an insult to be told that you are out of that particular loop?

Miss Manners advises you to stop being defensive and turn – well, no, not offensive, as you would be if you touted your pastimes, as your friends and acquaintances tout theirs. But you enjoy conversation, so why don’t you initiate some? A standard opening to do so is, “Read any good books lately?”