This morning I was listening to Sherry Turkle’s TED talk on the way to school. (Yes a little bit nerdy if you would like to think of it that way). The content of her speech was how humans have lost the ability to be alone after being around technology for such a long time.

It got me thinking about how we are always under the delusion that we need to stay connected and we need to have an assurance that people “like” (Click Like on Facebook) what we are doing. And it is for this form of “connection” that we shortchange ourselves for the real and personal relationships. People nowadays spend so much time on their computers and phone (You’ve probably done this before: When you’re in an awkward situation you tend to take out your phone and check twitter/facebook) that they end up thinking that social media is the only way they can “connect” with their friends. Really, there’s only so much social media can do! There’s no doubt that Social Media can help you get in touch with many of your friends or let you update your friends about what you’re doing in every single minute of your life. But thats just all. Social Media helps you to get to your friends but only through face-to-face interaction can relationships blossom.

Its quite funny how we think that technology can help us build a closer relationship with our friends but we end up letting them replace our friends. At the end of the day, in order to stop being overreliant on technology, we’ve all got to learn to cope with solidarity. If we want to build back that close relationship with our loved ones, don’t tweet them, don’t sms them. Personally ask to spend a day out with them and leave your phone at home. When we’re alone, try not to go to facebook/twitter so quickly, spend the day doing something more meaningful. Its definitely a scary thing to face at the start but its worth a shot! Maybe next time when you’re alone again, we won’t feel some sort of excruciating pain that no one cares or the urge to tweet #foreveralone on twitter. 

Its really normal to be alone, there’s nothing frightening about that. I don’t know but somehow, we’ve lost that ability to be alone…

1. californiasrepresent reblogged this from thatadrenalinejunkie and added:

   This morning I was listening to Sherry Turkle’s TED talk on the way to school. (Yes a little bit nerdy if you would like...

2. thatadrenalinejunkie posted this