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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 Saturday June 20 2020, @07:45PM
My grandfather used to work in coal mines in the early 20th century. He said in the event of a mine collapse, the owners would pay crews to rush to dig out mules. But anyone that wanted to rescue miners had to furnish their own equipment and do it without getting paid. The mules were a one time cost that the mine owner had already paid, so it was cost-effective to save them. Miners were paid by the hour and there were always more miners than mining jobs, so miner deaths were irrelevant to owners.
That same grandfather moved away from the coal mines to work at General Motors. Later in his life he saw the evils of the completely corrupt United Auto Worker's union. But as bad as the UAW was - and in the 1970s at the height of GM's success he predicted the UAW would be the downfall of GM - he had far more hatred for the mine owners and capitalism in general than for bad worker unions.