The Loneliness Pandemic: how humanity transforms from a large community into a society of individuals

Social media greatly impacts people, and its power is growing every second. All communication goes online, but how high-quality it is raises questions. Humanity has concentrated in the virtual world, which is why the quality of human communications outside the smartphone screen has deteriorated significantly. Why is this happening, and who benefits from people being isolated from each other?

Even in the last century, a single person was not the rule but a rare exception. Such people stood out strongly and not in a good way; hermits were not much favored. Most people lived in a community, their families were large, and if a person lost his family (for any reason), he always had many friends, comrades, and acquaintances. No one was left alone because a person needs a person.

The world has changed

But the Millennium has changed the world: since the 2000s, the number of single people has skyrocketed. To live comfortably and feel happy, you no longer need to be part of a community. And it’s all the fault of the Internet and social networks, which have replaced live communication.

The World Health Organization is seriously concerned about loneliness. They have declared it a “global public health problem” and even founded an international commission to study it. At one of the conferences in the USA, loneliness was put on a par with obesity and smoking, which cause terrible damage to health.

The illusion of communication

Interestingly, the number of contacts of a modern person is simply huge and constantly growing, while the quality of communication is slipping. You can write to a lot of people, but sometimes, you can’t find a heart-to-heart, warm, and deep conversation.

Another problem is the popularity of online psychologists who broadcast truths that supposedly apply to everyone. Everyone shouts about personal boundaries and the impossibility of violating them, forgetting that a person is not a robot, a person is different from a person, and one rule cannot be applied to everyone. Now, it becomes scary for someone to ask a colleague once again how they were doing and how they spent the weekend, but a simple conversation over tea can be the beginning of a new friendship.

Modern man fiercely guards his world and fears letting the wrong person into it. After all, no one wants to be disappointed. Visit. A F R I N I K. C O M . For the fuIl article. it’s much easier to put reactions on stories and send emojis to each other. But hiding from the real world can mean something much more worthwhile than the videos that users send to each other.

Who is behind the universal loneliness?

Marketers have been carefully studying a person for a long time to make even more money on his weaknesses. It is beneficial for big businesses for individuals to be single. Such a person is unlikely to ever be satisfied; he constantly wants to satisfy his selfish needs. This is so beneficial to the culture of overconsumption. A multimillion-dollar business is being built on loneliness.

Interest clubs

They make good money on their own. When, on the one hand, successful success is sold, social networks show how cool it is to live alone and have everything, covering exclusively personal needs; on the other hand, there is a growing demand for services that help people make contacts. This is how the number of dating apps is growing, and private interest clubs are appearing.

Many successful people consciously choose loneliness. However, their desire to communicate does not go away; they often join clubs with paid membership. Such communities have a simple goal: to compensate for business leaders’ loneliness and allow them to have the necessary, real human communication.

Why is a person lonely

People become lonely in the real world because of the same social networks. They broadcast the perfect picture, and the individual is trapped in inflated expectations. A person is surrounded by an information avalanche of beautiful images around the clock and constantly wants what he sees on his screen.
The constant comparison of oneself with others never benefits a person because everything in a smartphone, as in a commercial, is brighter and more attractive, while reality is faded and uninteresting.

Actual values have sunk into oblivion

The desires that modern man tries to satisfy with all his might are not his but artfully imposed by society and culture. And when a person chases after them, he forgets about his true desires.

Another problem is the desire for simplification. A person is lazy and wants to make life easier, and in the era of innovative progress, this takes on completely unexpected and often exaggerated forms. You can do nothing; it’s enough to have a phone: food and clothes will be delivered, and the old partner can be replaced with a new one in the application.

Everything is accessible and simple: this deprives life of taste and makes the individual lonely. A person is deprived of deep attachments and feelings.

But it’s worth considering whether the picture in the phone is so real or what Target offers is necessary. Instead of endlessly scrolling and watching several-second videos, you should put down your phone and go out for a walk, and instead of texting with a classmate, you should invite them for coffee. After all, the virtual world can be just an illusion, and if you get too immersed in it, the question arises: who are you without your phone?