There’s a time that I remember, when the words ‘Humans are social beings’ actually meant
something. Technology has not only replaced the manual labor in the industries, but is also replacing our needs for human contact and the importance of real relationships real fast. As our reliance on computers and the internet is growing, there is an increasing decline to the needs of our social health. The need of human contact still remains, but we no longer have the time and interest to acknowledge it. In a recent survey, it was found that nearly 50% of Americans have reported to sometimes or always feeling lonely, and these are statistics of just one nation. There are millions of people suffering from this problem. Yes, this mere emotion has turned into a major problem of modern society.
Loneliness has an impact on both our physical and mental well being. Research has shown that it has the same impact on death rates as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Some of the major factors that lead to this include the top 4 notifications on your phone right now. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp, initially, were found beneficial as they were easy to use communication routes, but we never really realised when they took over our verbal means of communication. From dating someone thousands of kilo-meters away to texting our sibling in the next room to ask for a bottle of water they have become our only source of communication. It doesn’t come to us in the early stages but soon we realise in this virtual world of ours we have isolated ourselves so far from humanity that we’re found in need of AI assistants to talk to since we no longer have anyone real left. This must be the only time period in human history when we’re so close yet so far away.
The thing about social media that makes you an addict is the feeling of being left out, following that meme or fashion trend, knowing what which celebrity is doing, everything available there. They have fed us this idea that these things matter the most in our lives for so long until we actually cannot live without them. One easy step that we all can take is a small social media break to realise that there’s so much more to life and how much time we really are spending on useless information. When we get back we’ll realise something really important that we never really missed out on anything. Although the damage has been done and the epidemic of loneliness has already spread, I still believe we have time to fix things its about time we put our priorities straight if we really wish to live a real life.