Rebecca Solnit’s recent essay In the Shadow of Silicon Valley, she describes the way San Francisco has changed due to the infiltration of technology and the intrusion of these technology companies into the civic life of San Francisco.
Interesting. You've given me a slightly different way to think about our current state of loneliness. Like maybe the reason it feels more acute than perhaps it really is, is because of the illusion of connectedness. In olden times, people would look around, realize they felt lonely, and think to themselves, "Well, t'aint naught to be done about it. Back to work in the fields." And they'd carry on. But thanks to our glass rectangles, we are constantly fooling ourselves into thinking we're less lonely than we really are. Or we see other people being genuinely connected with one another, and FOMO ourselves to death. It feels like help is juuust out of reach, whereas in bygone eras, loneliness was only something to embrace.
Interesting. You've given me a slightly different way to think about our current state of loneliness. Like maybe the reason it feels more acute than perhaps it really is, is because of the illusion of connectedness. In olden times, people would look around, realize they felt lonely, and think to themselves, "Well, t'aint naught to be done about it. Back to work in the fields." And they'd carry on. But thanks to our glass rectangles, we are constantly fooling ourselves into thinking we're less lonely than we really are. Or we see other people being genuinely connected with one another, and FOMO ourselves to death. It feels like help is juuust out of reach, whereas in bygone eras, loneliness was only something to embrace.
I think the illusion of connectedness is one of the most destructive aspects of modern life and something that exacerbates loneliness.