Loneliness is something I think we've all experienced at some point in time. Maybe you felt like nobody was there when it mattered most or that the people you thought you knew, weren't really the people you thought they were. I think for a while now we've all been experiencing loneliness as a much deeper and visceral level and I think we've also been experiencing it more often. This has got me thinking. Why is it people are feeling lonelier, more isolated, anxious and depressed? Moreover, why is it getting worse?
I think that people are getting lonelier. Or even, that people have lost their sense of community. Especially in highly developed countries. People are spending more and more of their time alone in their homes or alone in a crowded room. In the information era, data has replaced speech in a way. While we exchange much more than we used to, and much faster than we used to, I still feel there is an emptiness we're not filling. It's as if we are alone in a crowded room. We have access to almost anybody and still there's a void. And I doubt things will get any better.
Every industry on the planet is finding unique and creative ways to streamline operations and production. Whether it's fast food restaurants opting out of human cashiers in favor of ordering kiosks or universities and learning institutions shifting towards online learning, the death of the community and human interaction might be upon us.
It seems everyday we find a different way to cut out people from our lives and descend back into our homes. Even Wall-Mart has had self checkout for years now. While this makes everything easier and faster I can't help but think we won't stop there. I feel like the more our technology advances, the more we will try to make everything faster and more efficient. Even if it comes at a great cost.
While the time at the grocery store might be seen as a fairly inconsequential part of one's routine, it all adds up. Five minutes of small talk with a cashier can accumulate over time. It's those tiny moments of human interaction that happen over a long period of time that shape us, whether you know it or not. And because those moments are so small and seemingly irrelevant we have no problem cutting them out. In fact, get rid of them as soon as possible because they're all awkward anyway! But think of how many of those small moments end up giving you something amazing. Maybe 1-in-20,000 small interactions introduces a new idea to you. Who knows, small talk may even be your first interaction with your future spouse. One thing we forget is that the human experience is made out of moments. One's life is a collection of mainly meaningless and redundant scenes. But those meaningless scenes sometimes leads you to the best moment in the movie that becomes your life.
But, we continue to edit these scenes out of our lives. Chunk by chunk we've been taking away these little moments out to compound the already soul crushing sense of loneliness that goes along with being an adult.
As a kid growing up I remember having lots of friends. My neighbors especially. But as I've come into adult hood I realized that every year one or two seem to fall away until only a few are left. These friendships are definitely more meaningful but there's a certain romance to being in a room full of people you only kind of know. This offers the opportunity to get to know them a bit better rather than sticking with friends you already know. This is usually an amazing experience but the problem is, that room is empty now. Those same people you kinda know but not really are at their own home now and so are you. Save for the miniscule percentage of the population that actually plays sports in a team or is in some special interest group, we're all at home most of the time away from those people that give us those tiny moments. Instead of going to the movies and discussing how awful/amazing that movie just was with people we've never met, we're at home streaming.
I think our perpetual loneliness is going to get worse as technology progresses. As we cut more and more people out of our lives, we'll also cut out our ability to read people. To sympathize and understand people. This will undoubtedly have negative effects on the few relationships we do have. Conversation has pretty much been replaced by letters on the screen describing one's fleeting thoughts. Almost never leading down the road to productive speech. The art of the conversation is a dying medium for a lot of people.
What is yet to be seen is how people will react to the loss of human interaction. In the wake of the millenial generation there has been a stark rise in anti-religion philosophies. What people seem to forget about religion is that it is not only a set of dogma's, but has been for millennium a source of community and family for people. A group of like-minded individuals partaking in rituals that help build life-long bonds within communities. Most people are sorely lacking this kind of connection, but there are some people that have gravitated towards pseudo-religious groups. Think crossfitters or vegans. These are people that from my estimation, were craving a sort of family and community and ritual. Groups like these have become the religion of the 21st century. Crossfitters and vegans are just two examples of how people have taken ideas or lifestyles that can be done completely individually and turned them into communal experiences. Something that can be shared with other people. I think and hope that this is how people will deal with loneliness. By creating their own communities once again. Not just by reestablishing old forms of interaction but by finding new ones can't be replaced by a screen or a robot. This is how I think we will deal with loneliness in the future.
I think that people are getting lonelier. Or even, that people have lost their sense of community. Especially in highly developed countries. People are spending more and more of their time alone in their homes or alone in a crowded room. In the information era, data has replaced speech in a way. While we exchange much more than we used to, and much faster than we used to, I still feel there is an emptiness we're not filling. It's as if we are alone in a crowded room. We have access to almost anybody and still there's a void. And I doubt things will get any better.
Every industry on the planet is finding unique and creative ways to streamline operations and production. Whether it's fast food restaurants opting out of human cashiers in favor of ordering kiosks or universities and learning institutions shifting towards online learning, the death of the community and human interaction might be upon us.
It seems everyday we find a different way to cut out people from our lives and descend back into our homes. Even Wall-Mart has had self checkout for years now. While this makes everything easier and faster I can't help but think we won't stop there. I feel like the more our technology advances, the more we will try to make everything faster and more efficient. Even if it comes at a great cost.
While the time at the grocery store might be seen as a fairly inconsequential part of one's routine, it all adds up. Five minutes of small talk with a cashier can accumulate over time. It's those tiny moments of human interaction that happen over a long period of time that shape us, whether you know it or not. And because those moments are so small and seemingly irrelevant we have no problem cutting them out. In fact, get rid of them as soon as possible because they're all awkward anyway! But think of how many of those small moments end up giving you something amazing. Maybe 1-in-20,000 small interactions introduces a new idea to you. Who knows, small talk may even be your first interaction with your future spouse. One thing we forget is that the human experience is made out of moments. One's life is a collection of mainly meaningless and redundant scenes. But those meaningless scenes sometimes leads you to the best moment in the movie that becomes your life.
But, we continue to edit these scenes out of our lives. Chunk by chunk we've been taking away these little moments out to compound the already soul crushing sense of loneliness that goes along with being an adult.
As a kid growing up I remember having lots of friends. My neighbors especially. But as I've come into adult hood I realized that every year one or two seem to fall away until only a few are left. These friendships are definitely more meaningful but there's a certain romance to being in a room full of people you only kind of know. This offers the opportunity to get to know them a bit better rather than sticking with friends you already know. This is usually an amazing experience but the problem is, that room is empty now. Those same people you kinda know but not really are at their own home now and so are you. Save for the miniscule percentage of the population that actually plays sports in a team or is in some special interest group, we're all at home most of the time away from those people that give us those tiny moments. Instead of going to the movies and discussing how awful/amazing that movie just was with people we've never met, we're at home streaming.
I think our perpetual loneliness is going to get worse as technology progresses. As we cut more and more people out of our lives, we'll also cut out our ability to read people. To sympathize and understand people. This will undoubtedly have negative effects on the few relationships we do have. Conversation has pretty much been replaced by letters on the screen describing one's fleeting thoughts. Almost never leading down the road to productive speech. The art of the conversation is a dying medium for a lot of people.
What is yet to be seen is how people will react to the loss of human interaction. In the wake of the millenial generation there has been a stark rise in anti-religion philosophies. What people seem to forget about religion is that it is not only a set of dogma's, but has been for millennium a source of community and family for people. A group of like-minded individuals partaking in rituals that help build life-long bonds within communities. Most people are sorely lacking this kind of connection, but there are some people that have gravitated towards pseudo-religious groups. Think crossfitters or vegans. These are people that from my estimation, were craving a sort of family and community and ritual. Groups like these have become the religion of the 21st century. Crossfitters and vegans are just two examples of how people have taken ideas or lifestyles that can be done completely individually and turned them into communal experiences. Something that can be shared with other people. I think and hope that this is how people will deal with loneliness. By creating their own communities once again. Not just by reestablishing old forms of interaction but by finding new ones can't be replaced by a screen or a robot. This is how I think we will deal with loneliness in the future.
Comments
Post a Comment