The social loneliness
Written on November 9th, 2010 by Vincenzo Vecchio
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In our always-on social media world I think we are assisting to a new phenomenon: the “social loneliness“.
Social media has changed the way we interact with our friends, colleagues, loved ones. Mobile devices and their wireless and cheap connections have changed the way we use social networks. We are using mobile devices to update our status on facebook, twitter, tell friends where we are having dinner using foursqaure, and upload pictures of what we are looking at.
Wonderful! I would say.
But the strange thing I would like to address here is that not all of us are as social as they might appear on social media!
I was running in a public park in Milan a few days ago and I’ve noticed a noticeable amount of people who were sitting or walking alone in the park playing around with their mobile device. Most of them were probably updating their status on social networks, reading posts from friends and sharing their position somewhere else. In a situation where you would expect some lonely and contemplative thinking or reading, these people were actually trying to feel in the middle of a crowd. I often update my status or position from mobile too, but usually this is while I’m on the way traveling and do not have the chance to have face-to-face chat with friends. This is also a nice way of feeling close to friends.
Hence I have two open questions:
1. since they are walking alone in the park, do you think these people are really as social as they appear on social networks?
2. could spending a bit less time updating our status from mobile devices in the park help us in getting a few real drinks with friends at the pub?
This makes me think that some people are not expressing their real inner soul, appearing much more social then they truly are.
Also, should we try to be a bit less lazy and go outside to meet with people instead of updating our status from our iPhone? Are we going towards a social loneliness?
Any thought or ideas are more than welcome.
- Tags: MOBILE DEVICE, PDA, SOCILA LONELINESS
- Categories: Highlight, Social Media
