Loneliness in the Midst of Social Media Boom

I have been reading frantically this past week, so that some idea may find itself into a post due tonight. In doing so, I was glued to the Internet longer than usual, of course, interspersed with enough entertainment (read Netflix/Prime) in between to rejuvenate from the boredom of excess reading. Of course, I didn’t find anything interesting to write, but when I sat down this morning, worried about the fast-approaching deadline, I was surprised that the topic lay hidden in the task I was doing all along. Yes, the loneliness that ensues from social media. Surprising, isn’t it?

We are all users of social media for one reason or another. And it takes up most of the time we are awake. Whether to chat, email, post and update, or simply to flaunt vacation pics, we are enslaved by this captivating force that has taken over our lives completely. So much so that, many among us are more comfortable interacting over social media than in person. This is the point Sherry Turkle makes in her book, ‘Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk In A Digital Age.”‘ I haven’t read the book myself, but I heard about it in a podcast yesterday where loneliness in the days of social media was being discussed. In the podcast, the host mentioned that Turkle interviewed several people for her book and many among them felt it was easier to talk over social media where you can plan, edit, or even delete your text whereas this is not possible when you are having an offline conversation/s, That is also the reason many people shied away from talking to each other, lest they be judged. And so while people continue to share a lot of their private lives with those known and unknown to them through cyberspace, the same people would not be comfortable saying even a few words in person. Families are getting disconnected gradually because of all the time spent pleasing those we don’t see face to face. And slowly, this is destroying our social fabric–because an entire generation and those after it are and will be affected. Closely connected to this is the term Popcorn Brain coined by Adam Levy. It talks about constantly being engaged on social media–whether at home, waiting in line at the supermarket, or even waiting for an appointment at the doctor’s. This is a serious problem we all face because the moment we get a minute free, we reach out for our gadget instantaneously as if it were something we cannot live without. Even when we are having conversations with people, we barely pay attention as we constantly look down at our phones to check the notification/s that just popped up. I remember I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts that while we were waiting in a room as our kids wrote a competitive exam on a Sunday morning, every parent was either on his/her laptop or phone. No one, not one person was having a face-to-face conversation, the one that we used to have about 2 decades ago. It’s almost as if we have forgotten how to interact face-to-face; we simply don’t want to.

There are tons of suggestions/advice/content/podcasts on how cutting out screen time is crucial for our physical and mental well-being. Even though we may have thousands of likes on our posts or even more friends on Facebook if our phones are taken away for half a day, boredom is bound to strike and we will be left feeling lonely and miserable. Even actual meetings are incomplete without selfies to increase Instagram likes. This is the extent to which we have come and continue to move ahead. If this wave is not stopped soon, we will be in for bigger health risks and disjointed social life. I think we need to stop for a moment and think, what needs to be done to cut the tentacles of this dangerous monster? How would we like our future generation to live on this planet? Where do we begin? These are some of the questions we need to find answers for…SOON!

This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla in collaboration with Dr. Preeti Chauhan.

Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash