Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Connected but Lonely
In another class I'm taking, Communication and Technology, there was a discussion I found very interesting about how 1 in 4 Americans are classified by lonely. Lonely being defined as people who don't share their days events with at least one person each day. I found this strange but believable. We have our email and social media but it doesn't mean we aren't lonely. Or internet friends, most of them at least on Facebook, are not people you can share your days events with. You'd like to call someone or better yet talk face to face with someone about your day. But instead, people continue to be lonely despite the reaches and ability of the internet and other communication tools.
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This is a somewhat disturbing sentiment, however something that certainly happens. I feel that people who spend most of their time in front of a screen are usually "lonely". There really is no substitute for face to face conversation. While the internet can connect people in ways never before possible, it also tends to make people less social
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ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to note that using social networking web sites can even help to spread loneliness. Check out this article from the Chicago Tribune.
ReplyDeleteThis goes back to the line that is drawn between cyberspace and physical life. Even though we have the ability to interact with people in an instantaneous manner through a means of text chatting, facebook or other social networking, web-camming via skype, blogging and writing our own blogs--there is still a lurking absence of the non-mediated, interpersonal & non-linear interaction between yourself and other people.
ReplyDeletebut note that the study defines "lonely" in behavioral terms, rather than as a feeling akin to unhappiness.
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