Are we just animals?

I have been wondering about this a lot lately. I am not sure if this is something more prevalent in New York or whether it's a disease of our over internet- and cell phone-conscious generation, but I have been running into more and more people who are just not open to communication and basic human interactions. Not too long ago I saw someone on the subway I recognized from work, so I went up to him to say hi and to introduce myself. We chatted for 3 stops and since it turned out we lived near each other, we walked for another few minutes, talking. He seemed nice and funny. A few days later I sent him an email just to follow up and asked if he wanted to get a cup of coffee sometime. He replied almost a week later, saying "I'll see you around." Next time I ran into him at work, he barely stopped to say hi and rushed off. Are my expectations from people too high? Did he assume that I only talked to him because I was interested in him? Maybe it's somewhat true, the chances of me going up to an unattractive person or a woman on the subway might be lower, but how else are we supposed to make connections with people in this day in age and in this city, where everyone is always rushing and people have headphones on or their ears glued to their cell phones, better yet, writing emails on the iPhones and Blackberries while crossing the street? After all, humans are supposed to be different from animals in that they communicate with each other. Or are we just slightly more intelligent animals?

With this being said, fortunately, I have recently met several people who have been fantastic and I have learned much from my interactions with them. Sometimes I crave those interactions. After spending much of our waking hours in offices or labs where we communicate little and work much in front of the computer, real human interactions can be pretty rare. This is why I love hanging out in our lunch room for 2 hours with my co-workers and chatting about the most pointless things. It's fun! But there is only so much time one has, and some days or weeks are just too crazy to take 2-hour lunch breaks. Sometimes real connections with people happen very unexpectedly at the wrong time or wrong place, or under impossible circumstances. Even then, although it might make us feel a little sad and helpless, I think that we still learn something from every experience, and finding real connections is such an exciting and wonderful thing that we should always cherish them and remember them fondly.