Loneliness Has Escalated Into A Social Epidemic

Have to say I'm a bit like some earlier in the thread - I've met some great people but there are just enough total <insert explicit> that I'd happily have very minimal exposure to other people.

I spend a lot of time alone by choice and rarely am lonely - there are times you need other people though.
 
phonemonkey said:
I think some here have mistaken being alone for loneliness. Speaking for myself, I've spent hours feeling lonely in the pub surrounded by people and hours feeling happily connected to others while alone at home.
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I think this is the crux of it. Being lonely isn't about your physical interaction or your online interaction, it's about your state of mind.

You can be introverted and very happy with the way you balance your life, I am, I just accept that every now and again I like to spend a day or so on my own.

I don't want sympathy or see that as a negative, it's just me.

On the other hand people may appear to be out all the time but still feel lonely as they don't get what they need from those relationships, perhaps they're quite superficial friendships etc.

Another thing that strikes me is that people are very judgemental about this subject. They seem to think that because they're one way or the other, then that's the way everybody should be.

As long as people are genuinely content, live and let live, you may as well tell someone who doesn't like music/driving/football they're "wrong" just because you like those things.
 
I've always had the opinion that social media is a cancer. I detest it, and yet I'm part of a generation that use it all the time.

It's strange, we're more connected than we've ever been, but just as lonely.

To those saying they hate everyone - surely you just hate idiot people? The problem with that, is there are too many of them these days. Don't get me wrong, plenty of good people as well.

I take pride in not having Facebook on my phone, but it does affect my grades at uni (not playing up to the expectation of replying 24/7)
 
phonemonkey said:
I think some here have mistaken being alone for loneliness. Speaking for myself, I've spent hours feeling lonely in the pub surrounded by people and hours feeling happily connected to others while alone at home.

I think that social media and technology has allowed us all to present a very edited version of our lives online, where we only look happy, surrounded by people, and are celebrating. It's easy to assume, when that's all you see, that others don't feel sad, lonely etc and thus that we are failures or missing out because our lives aren't like those heavily edited version of our friends lives. I also think that the ability to communicate 'en mass' possibly also degrades the quality of our interactions. Prior to Facebook I might have phoned my friends to say I was getting married, for example, individually. This might have lead to lengthy and meaningful conversations about our respective fears of mucking up on the day or whatever. When my friends post such stuff on Facebook its greeted with 50 likes and comments saying 'congratulations'. Hardly a quality and meaningful interaction.

I think, in this age of instantaneous public communication, we all need to make an effort to engage with someone, or a group of trusted someone's, in a meaningful quality way but its substance of that interaction, not the means which matters in my mind.
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Uther said:
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arknor said:
I blame facebook
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Social media or marketing.... But I notice that many people while sharing how happy they are around some friends and relatives, they do not present themselves in the best possible light with sharing quotes (sometimes of very famous people) which are wrong.
 
MrRockliffe said:
To those saying they hate everyone - surely you just hate idiot people? The problem with that, is there are too many of them these days. Don't get me wrong, plenty of good people as well.
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Maybe I'm just getting old but I find an increasing number of people these days utterly contemptible in the way they treat other people and lack of taking responsibility for their actions and things like health and safety.

More and more over the last few years I've had to tidy up after people at the end of the day at work making sure equipment is properly put away and things like fire doors are unblocked, etc. more and more people seem to have complete complacency towards anything they aren't forced to take responsibility for and even then they usually do a **** job and only doing it because the pressure is put on them. I can sympathise with a general lack of motivation and not putting in extra effort, etc. with the way employers increasingly seem to mess people around, etc. but when people can't even be bothered to get the basics right especially when it effects other people its pitiful and the way more and more people treat shared facilities like toilets, eating spaces, etc. disgusting.

Bit of a rant but I've seen a marked change over the last 15-20 years and it isn't for the better.
 
So many people are the embodiment of life on facebook, It seems every time you see a post they are doing something amazing, with someone amazing and are amazingly happy. But none of that translates into real life a lot of the time. They put everything into putting that view of themselves on social media and forget to actually live life a bit. Everything is about the next instagram picture thats going to get a ton of like or facebook post or whatever, you get my point. I very rarely go on facebook(almost never for other SM) and if i do its for messenger or a few different pages that im liked to and do not understand at all the social media obsession that almost everyone around me (age 22) has.
 
Zswizzy said:
So many people are the embodiment of life on facebook, It seems every time you see a post they are doing something amazing, with someone amazing and are amazingly happy. But none of that translates into real life a lot of the time. They put everything into putting that view of themselves on social media and forget to actually live life a bit. Everything is about the next instagram picture thats going to get a ton of like or facebook post or whatever, you get my point. I very rarely go on facebook(almost never for other SM) and if i do its for messenger or a few different pages that im liked to and do not understand at all the social media obsession that almost everyone around me (age 22) has.
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The only social thing in the capitalist system is the social media.
The capitalists take themselves so seriously that they always claim they are too social, need to be less. If they go even a little bit more in the right direction, they will touch the fascism itself.
 
Love how the first sentence is about how much this all costs. It's like the economists have found how much the proles being miserable is costing them in lost profits, and want us to do something about it.
 
Rroff said:
Maybe I'm just getting old but I find an increasing number of people these days utterly contemptible in the way they treat other people and lack of taking responsibility for their actions and things like health and safety.

More and more over the last few years I've had to tidy up after people at the end of the day at work making sure equipment is properly put away and things like fire doors are unblocked, etc. more and more people seem to have complete complacency towards anything they aren't forced to take responsibility for and even then they usually do a **** job and only doing it because the pressure is put on them. I can sympathise with a general lack of motivation and not putting in extra effort, etc. with the way employers increasingly seem to mess people around, etc. but when people can't even be bothered to get the basics right especially when it effects other people its pitiful and the way more and more people treat shared facilities like toilets, eating spaces, etc. disgusting.

Bit of a rant but I've seen a marked change over the last 15-20 years and it isn't for the better.
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I would tend to agree - it's a bit of a vicious cycle at university. Lectures can't be bothered, so students don't bother. And it keeps going.

We're at the point where students are cheating in assessments of projects (most recently optimising a catapult system) and the lecturer not even caring - I pointed it out to him. His response was oh well. Needless to say, they came second highest.

I put the effort in where it counts, but with the lack of respect I get from other students, I'm finding I cannot be bothered anymore.
 
I have a friend who lectures at a university and he thinks about 70% of students have some social oddity about them - particularly anxiety / depression. I think it much be linked with the computer age.

On a semi related note, I watched the green mile last night and something one of the characters said really resonated with me, which was more or less “everyday so many people are so ugly to each other”. It’s true. If everyone would be a bit more compassionate and less indifferent it would make a big difference.

Vonhelmet said:
Emptiness is loneliness and loneliness is cleanliness and cleanliness is godliness and god is empty JUST LIKE MEEEEE.

*wailing guitar silo*
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The solo isn’t until later in the song, but on the other hand I’ve always wanted to see a guitar silo, so I approve.
 
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