I read an interesting piece on The Guardian earlier regarding “the age of loneliness” killing us bit by bit. And while I feel the piece is, on the whole, doomsaying somewhat, there’s also a lot of truth in there.
I’ve become a lot more conscious of all this since starting my “new life” a little while ago — working a “proper job” with three-dimensional people all around me, ditching most of social media for my own sanity and generally trying to “unplug” a little bit from my utter dependence on the digital realm.
The biggest change has been the opportunity to interact with real people on a daily basis. Sometimes those people are asking me to do things as part of my job, but at other times it’s a simple social interaction where we share things with one another: the problems we had with a retailer; what we had for dinner last night; our pets having various illnesses; what we think of this weather we’ve been having, gosh, it’s been really variable, hasn’t it?
I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed this, but being fully immersed in the digital realm for several years had proven an adequate substitute for human interaction at the time. It wasn’t until towards the end of my time with USgamer that I was starting to feel a little dissatisfied with spending all day every day “on my own” (despite hundreds, possibly thousands of people being on the other end of an email or tweet) and, once I was made redundant, it truly dawned on me that I was indeed living through my own personal “age of loneliness”.
It’s often been said that social media ironically contributes to feelings of loneliness and isolation, and it’s a difficult one to win. Without social media, it can be difficult to feel connected to other people — though there are alternative, more focused solutions for communication that rely less on shouting into the ether and more on more direct interactions. But with social media, despite all these connections to other people, it’s equally easy to feel isolated, too; the constant races for oneupmanship on Facebook and Twitter — the race to be the first to post a pithy comment in response to a tragedy; the race to post the coolest photo of an event; the race to get the most Likes and comments on a passive-aggressive statement — all detract from meaningful social interaction, instead turning communication into a competition. That doesn’t feel especially healthy to me.
Like I say, though, it’s difficult to find that balance. At present, I feel like I’m having a reasonable time of it — I get along well with the people I work with during the day; I spend time with Andie in the evening and, on certain occasions such as tonight, get to spend time with friends — but I do often still find myself wondering if I’m “missing out” on anything by not checking in on Facebook or Twitter. (I actually closed the latter account altogether after the post the other day, which got shared more widely than I intended and consequently attracted ire I didn’t really want to deal with at the time; I haven’t felt the need to reopen it yet, and should I ever decide to return to Twitter I think it will be with a brand new “fresh start” account)
I am not, however, missing that urge to take a photograph of everything that happens in my day and then post it online as if anyone would give a shit about what the sunset looks like from where I’m standing right now (probably quite similar to the sunset from where you’re standing right now) or what my lunch looks like (pretty much like lunch). I find myself longing for the days when things like photographs were more permanent and more meaningful; everything in the digital age feels so utterly disposable, and that’s probably where a lot of the whole loneliness thing stems from: you can be the centre of attention one minute and utterly forgotten about the next. The modern world is fickle indeed.
Anyway. It’s 1am and I’m doing that thing where I ramble only vaguely coherently as I try not to fall asleep in front of my screen. So I think it’s probably time to go and get some sleep; I have a very long day ahead of me tomorrow, so plenty of rest beforehand would probably be a good idea!
I'm Not Doctor Who 
That article is pretty bad, but I don’t think it’s lying, either. It’s perhaps commenting on how things truly have become more dog-eat-dog in the name of a broken system, capitalism does not a healthy human race make.
It used to be tempered with the fact that we would not raise the bar so high as to make getting wages more difficult the less experience you have. Youth were given opportunities because they were seen as the future (and rightly so), instead of “leeches” who “leave when the next best thing arrives”.