Technology and Loneliness

Man is a social animal and loneliness can drive him crazy. To solve this problem, many new inventions have been made and one of them is mobile phone. Everyone has this electronic gadget with so many social networking applications in their pockets all the time. Whenever they are standing alone, waiting for someone or just feel lonely, they tend to use that device. We expect our loneliness to disappear by using it. So in order to do that, we update our profiles, we check others’ profiles and spend hours and hours scrolling through those screens in order to stay up-to-date.

But is this connection, that’s available to us 24/7 really satisfying us or leave us contended? According to many researches, the more the technology is advancing, the more the loneliness increases.

Loneliness is a complex and an unwanted feeling, usually unpleasant to us. It’s an emotional response to isolation or lack of companionship. These feelings can also lead to anxiety and if not treated in early stages, then depression. People have even committed suicides because of it.

Science states that a human brain can’t process more than 150 true relationships and we see our profiles, our contacts list, there are more than 150 people we call as friends.

Sir Nasim Nicholas Taleb said, “the difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free”.

Technology is undoubtedly a fascinating phenomenon and it attracts us through small screens. It has enslaved us by presenting us some fantasies, by showing that technology is happy, active and optimistic.

Some of us might have also seen pictures on facebook, of our hands cuffed with cellphones. Isn’t that correct? Technology is enslaving us. We spend much of our times on these sites, in search of happiness or to feel up to date and in control, but it rarely is the case that we are happy after using it. We don’t feel good, sometimes not even close to it.

Marther luther king said, “the irony of our time is that we have guided missiles but misguided men”.

Technology is misguiding us by presenting us three illusions that we can focus on whatever we want, that we are always heard and that we are never alone. Man likes to be in control so he uses this technology to feel powerful. And we update our profiles and put statuses and share our feelings and think that we are always heard. And the third one, the craziest one, the one driving the generation crazy, is that we would never be alone. It is increasing the human misery.

We are chatting, messaging and in real life, we can’t even start the conversation. This technology takes us close to those who are far away and takes us away from those who are close to us.

In order to end the feeling of loneliness, we have entered in a paradox. We collect friends online like stamps, we replace real conversation with mare connection and we hide our vulnerable feelings to show that we are always happy.

If social media is a bridge between people then why most of the people feel lonely in general? Is this the paradox we are feeding on? Is this what makes everything, media interesting?