The More "Connected" We Get, the Less Connected we Actually Are

When I got my first Internet connection — this would have been in 1995 — the whole experience was really exciting to me.

Above all, the greatest appeal was the fact that all of a sudden my "circle" was no longer just limited to the small group of people around me, but suddenly the entire world could come into my living room. Wow!

At the time, the cool thing about it was that I could connect with others who were interested in the same "collectible things" as I — from old postage stamps to vintage Danish pottery and beyond. These were all things that I perhaps could find a handful of people interested in, and suddenly I had access to thousands of fellow collectors. Wow!

Of course, I was also recently separated from my ex, and went on to become among the very first people to experiment with "meeting people online." There weren't really any "dating apps" as people know them today although my friend Jon developed one of the very first and ended up "making his" by selling his fledgling company to giant Match.com for $6 million.

So what's my point here?

Not so long ago I was talking to a young friend who was complaining about feeling lonely, and he was lamenting how his social life seemed to echo that old saying (about TV) from our parents' time: "300 channels and nothing on!"

The problem he was describing was essentially an extension of the dilemma that we spend so much time on social media, and dating apps that there's actually very little time left over for "real life."

In my friend's case, real life didn't actually seem all that appealing... because it seemed to involve more rejection than he felt inclined to deal with.

Clearly, he's not alone in experiencing this dynamic.

I ended up listening to a couple of podcasts that talked about this very notion of us being more "connected" than ever, and also more lonely, at the same time.

What Chris was describing was the reality that he felt like he was being "swiped left" 99% of the time... which I thought to be an exaggeration till I listened to those podcasts and became more familiar with the sad reality that in the digital world, everybody is basically "fishing" for love and connection in the top 10%, with the result that being in the bottom 90% essentially means you're left with an ocean of rejection.

My young friend is definitely not a top influencer, and he's not the wealthy CEO of his own start-up company, nor is he a male IG model.

But he is a really nice person, not bad looking, intelligent and employed. But in the digital age, that's evidently no longer "good enough."

So he ends up staying home a lot, gaming rather than socializing. And he despairs ever meeting "somebody."

And now we have a new wrinkle in this whole equation called AI. Increasingly, disillusioned younger people are finding it "easier" to just resort to chatbots, rather than actually taking the time to go out and meet real human beings in their area. And that's one of the things I find a little troubling about AI, and the implication for all of us.

I'm older now, and beyond worrying about this issue from a personal perspective. But I wonder how my grandchildren will end up experiencing life. Will they end up sequestered inside the world of AI? Hopefully not, but it is a sobering thought...

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

How about you? Do you feel connected? Disconnected? Do you have a tendency to retreat inside virtual worlds? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2023.10.02 01:35 PDT
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