SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Tech and social media are making us feel lonelier than ever:
You've had a social day. Two hundred Facebook friends posted birthday messages, your video of Mr. Meow shredding the toilet paper stash got dozens of retweets, and all the compliments on your latest Instagram selfie have you strutting with an extra swagger. Still, you can't help but notice an ache that can only be described as loneliness.
That we feel this way even when hyperconnected might seem like a contradiction. But the facts are clear: Constant virtual connections can often amplify the feeling of loneliness.
"Internet-related technologies are great at giving us the perception of connectedness," says Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, a Stanford University psychiatrist who's written about the intersection of psychology and tech. The truth, he says, is the time and energy spent on social media's countless connections may be happening at the expense of more rooted, genuinely supportive and truly close relationships.
If virtual socializing cannot substitute for the real thing, will social media prove out to be nothing more than a fad of the late 20th and early 21st centuries?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @11:45AM (5 children)
>> will social media prove out to be nothing more than a fad of the late 20th and early 21st centuries?
Yes, it will die out with the millennials.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 19 2020, @11:47AM (1 child)
*It will die out with humanity.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @01:11PM
*Humanity died along with it
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @05:32PM (2 children)
PS: boomers are by far the most addicted. We millenials are moving off social media and/or limiting our interactions with it. Once again education and experience beats "been on Earth longer."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @06:36PM (1 child)
> boomers are by far the most addicted.
Boomer here (born mid-1950s), never signed up for FB or any of the other "social" sites that came before. I did sign up for LinkedIn for business reasons--but never posted a profile or photo. Then MS bought it, at which point I attempted to quit [with only limited success].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @07:49PM
Don't worry, I don't presume all boomers are FB group loving late joining hipster wannabes.