We jammed a ton of intermediate layers and hacks into social interaction. Of course they are removed from a natural social habitat. And they will rebel against it. There will come a generation who completely discards everything tained by valley tech.
It's easy to blame tech. I'm someone who is borderline Millenial/Gen Z and I'm actually finding myself, both internally and externally, through the use of Twitter. Still very alone at times, think Mr. Robot, but I've actually found hope through the internet. Strangely enough, I had actually wasted time and developed maladaptive traits by trying to find myself in the "real" world, as in the people I was forced to bond with through school and sports.
My take on this is different and many people will disagree. Here it goes. The "intermediate layers and hacks in social interaction" you speak of isn't technology but actually our myths of diversity and multi-culturalism. Real multi-culturalism is really REALLY hard, might be impossible given human nature. The only diverse thing we can all agree on is ethnic food. The other is probably college, careers, etc. Everything else is gone. Our culture is absent of anything internal or metaphysic. Religion and local communities are gone. Political correctness destroyed art.
I'm happy that some people can thrive in this world and good for them. There's the other half who pretend to be part of the trend; the ones that feel isolated. Then there are those like me who are lost in this world. Don't need pity, I've decided to make my own.
s/Millennials/People/g -Seriously, although its perhaps stronger in young people, has this not always been a "thing" and had we a time machine, what would we find asking this of the same age cohort in times past?
Memory imparts a rosy hue: you can't ask people now about the past and expect an un-biassed answer.
I think I can give an unbiased answer - I remember The Offspring wrote a song about the same thing back in 1994 (ie pre-modern-internet, pre-smartphone) called So Alone.
"Look at the crowd and tell me whether / All are surrounded / But none are together / If you're awake, look all around / At all of the people / Still you're so alone / So alone"
I wish I had more time to write about this, because it's an important topic to me, but I think this actually has shifted over time. I believe it's not a smart phone / social media thing per se, it's a modernity thing, and that if you go back into premodern times, you'll find it was significantly different, and that loneliness was pretty rare.
The part I don't have time to write here is why I think that's true, but I'll say in a too-brief summary: the same tools that allow us to organize ourselves en masse into nations and industries, also necessarily create divisions and isolation that just didn't exist in most of human pre-history, which involved close-knit family and tribal units existing and interacting together and doing meaningful work together throughout their entire lives.
Several years ago I worked with a young intern who grew up in the suburbs of the bay area but was going to school in NYC. She said there was nothing in the world so lonely as being surrounded by thousands of people in a big city. I think it has to do with our assumption that everyone around us is more connected than we are.
I have a hunch this might be related to the way American friendships work. The structure of the educational system encourages many weak friendships rather than a couple strong friendships. This then translates into other life.
Facebook is fundamentally a tool for managing these weak friendships.
[+] [-] LifeLiverTransp|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] identity_zero|7 years ago|reply
My take on this is different and many people will disagree. Here it goes. The "intermediate layers and hacks in social interaction" you speak of isn't technology but actually our myths of diversity and multi-culturalism. Real multi-culturalism is really REALLY hard, might be impossible given human nature. The only diverse thing we can all agree on is ethnic food. The other is probably college, careers, etc. Everything else is gone. Our culture is absent of anything internal or metaphysic. Religion and local communities are gone. Political correctness destroyed art.
I'm happy that some people can thrive in this world and good for them. There's the other half who pretend to be part of the trend; the ones that feel isolated. Then there are those like me who are lost in this world. Don't need pity, I've decided to make my own.
Here's a short video capturing the loneliness of the young today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uuYm7KDm_A
Sorry to link to a scrappy 4-Chan esque video but Hollywood isn't exactly getting the people at the bottom.
[+] [-] ggm|7 years ago|reply
Memory imparts a rosy hue: you can't ask people now about the past and expect an un-biassed answer.
[+] [-] SyneRyder|7 years ago|reply
"Look at the crowd and tell me whether / All are surrounded / But none are together / If you're awake, look all around / At all of the people / Still you're so alone / So alone"
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-fFflDhuVuA
[+] [-] pmichaud|7 years ago|reply
The part I don't have time to write here is why I think that's true, but I'll say in a too-brief summary: the same tools that allow us to organize ourselves en masse into nations and industries, also necessarily create divisions and isolation that just didn't exist in most of human pre-history, which involved close-knit family and tribal units existing and interacting together and doing meaningful work together throughout their entire lives.
[+] [-] joejerryronnie|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amriksohata|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adamnemecek|7 years ago|reply
Facebook is fundamentally a tool for managing these weak friendships.
I generalize of course.
[+] [-] delinka|7 years ago|reply
How so? Please elaborate.