Lonely. Jan 2025.
Surrounded by my kind, yet alone I stand.
Conversations many, dialogue I have none.
Strangely, we live in the age of social media supposedly a tool for networking and building community. In spite of that, or perhaps because of it, we are today more alone that ever before in human history.
FOMO mixed with Tessler’s Self Evaluation Maintenance theory which suggests we evaluate ourself by comparison with others (especially those close to us, which also translates to our social network).
And going by how we put ourselves up as exhibits on social media, all for validation by people we hardly know, we have set ourselves up for loneliness and depression.
This led the WHO to declare loneliness a pressing health threat back in 2023.
What is the way forward? I’d reckon we disconnect our personal lives from social media and build actual real-life networks around ourselves. People we can reach out and talk to over a cup of coffee.