The society of the 19th century was simple: you were either poor or rich, it seemed that your capabilities, attitudes, knowledge and the people you were related to, were predefined when your world comprehended nothing but your crib. Had you had luck, your last name could precede yourself with the bravery, wisdom, perhaps a novel title and no worries other than having a family or trying to keep god with a smile upon your face. Otherwise, you could work for the previous guy, struggling just to learn how to do your job, just if you were lucky enough not to be born a slave, with a load right on your back.
On the other hand, the society of the 21st century is not as simple as it used to be: you have contact with your beloved ones several times a day, without even seeing or talking to them. “Contact with your beloved ones … without even seeing or talking to them”, that’s a curious sentence, huh?
When one comes to realize that one can be physically alone but mentally accompanied, one must recognize the effect of technology and the change of mindset that has occurred exponentially since industrial revolution. But the initial statement might be as weak as the steadiness of people: the way that everyone assimilates the possibility of being globally connected to people can be as different as a horse and a zebra. It just takes to browse a few minutes in your facebook page; you probably will find people with more than a thousand friends. Can he/she talk to everyone online as you would when you run into a long-time-no-see acquaintance? Perhaps not! On the other hand, you might find people with some dozens of friends, but really close friends who he/she’d chat with if had a chance. To me, it seems that being balanced is the more adequate way to go: that way you can keep track of the acquaintances you share time with every once in a while, and keep close contact with your friends, not just virtually, but using the fast and wide communication opportunity to arrange meetings or events.
Was social contact so important 2 centuries ago? That’s another question. Back to those times, it should have been enough for you to have the approval/blessing of 1 or 2 important people in order to have your life settled; but if you tried to do that very same thing, you may (anyway) encounter walls as high as the empire state. Was it so important 80 years ago having the fancy controlled air flow tennis shoes to improve the way you play sports? Not likely. You were the good your skills were. That was it.
Right at this point, you stare at a fact that has been increasingly noticeable in the last decades: People have more needs now than several years ago. That fact is essential to the lifestyle held nowadays. It has become important to have an mp3 player, a nice portable computer, a cell phone where you can set appointments and check your schedule in a matter of seconds. These newly important devices follow a pattern: they either keep you from “wasting” time in those activities that don’t add value or make you feel more comfortable during the daily life.
As we can see, tech and dev have had an effect in everyone’s life. But when it comes to contact, has traded quality personal contact with a few people for impersonal contact with many people. Still, a life without quality personal contact can be shallow as the Dead Sea and lead to a life with no significant shame, but no significant glories.
A person, in order to avoid the excess of shallow impersonal contact, normally gets to choose part of the people they’re involved with, and spend quality time with them. And the more choices you have, the harder is to choose who you want to spend some quality time with; determine priorities. If you get to choose at least a few people who want and care about personal contact, you will be that kind of person in the end. I think that’s the healthiest way to go. That way, one can be aware of the close people’s worlds as well as aware of the highlights of the not-so-close ones. Having only impersonal friends will certainly lead to an impersonal life, which is curious, because that way, wanting company could result in no company at all as the physical world seems far away.
As you see, there are several details that can have impact in the big picture. That’s why it is important to learn the importance of people around you, not because of what people mean to you, but also because of what you mean to them. Discerning about the type of welfare that might result out of using technology is the key in order to avoid a fake sensation of company or solitude, which can lead someone’s life to try to solve a problem that’s never been there, or to ignore a bigger problem .
Tech itself can’t lead you to loneliness, it is each person, and his/her free will that can lead him/her there, as long as that person doesn’t use the benefits given by the modern world the way they were meant to be.
Ricardo Segovia
Johnson & Johnson
