How Social Networks Teach You to be Lonely.
If you can spare four minutes today, watch this video. It clearly states, and shows that there is a connection between Social Networks, and Being Lonely.
Script, Design & Animation: Shimi Cohen.
Getting Off of Social Media.
Lately I’ve been feeling lonely. ‘til this morning, I was on facebook. I reactivated my account after a long time. This I did partly due to work, and partly because of the feeling of loneliness. I started becoming more active on Twitter. I rarely ever tweeted. This again was the result of my loneliness. I disguised it, wrapped it within excuses.
Before I came across these two videos (see above, and below), I had deactivated my Facebook account, yet again. I didn’t find an end to my loneliness. Scrolling through status updates of people I knew once, or people I had only connected with, and not had any real conversation(s) with, formal or informal. I questioned that decision again, when evening came.
Then while searching for some videos to re-learn fundamentals of design, I landed on “The Innovation of Loneliness” somehow. Within minutes of watching these videos, I realized that if I continue on with being active on social media, creating connections, and what not, then I will ultimately learn how to be lonely. Learn more than what I know of loneliness, already. Something that I do not want. So today, these videos made a decisions for me. I am not going to be activating my facebook account, apart from work related reasons. When I do, I will create an empty account, devoid of all connections. I am going to keep the Twitter account active, but will only be sharing posts from there. Active communication will be limited to email, text, and calls with friends, family, and work (can’t avoid these).
Instagram, 500px, and flickr I will keep, update and, share my work, experiences, and experiments in Photography without creating any connections. Both 500px, and flickr haven’t seen any activity from me, for a long long time. I have two accounts on Instagram. The first one which is personal, and I share only with family. The second one is for sharing my work. The github account will remain, so that I can share code examples, and tutorials. The reddit account is for fun, to keep up-to-date with the world, and not for conversations or connections. Apart from all that, I won’t be continuing with being active on social media, or actively pursuing connections online.
As far as this blog, and sojourner.photography go, they were, and ever will be for sharing my experiences, and finding more of me than anything else.
Sources that Shimi Cohen credits are:
- Connected, But Alone.- TED Talk by Sherry Turkle: If you have another twenty minutes, watch this one too. It’s embedded below.
- The Invention of Loneliness (hebrew article) by Dr. Yair Amichai-Hamburgers.
Connected, But Alone.
A good talk by Sherry Turkle. She studies how technology, and enabled devices are affecting our individual selves. She talks about how being online, fundamentally changes you, and how it affects your communication skills.
