Is it possible to imagine a planet of connected loners? Is it possible for us to be together yet completely distant from one another? Are we building or breaking down our interpersonal relations, increasingly more frequent today via electronic interfaces? On the other hand, our society experiences a moment of transition, especially in the major cities, where more and more people are living by themselves.
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Loneliness and social networks
1. Loneliness
and
Social
Networks
July
16th
,
2012,
08:38
PM
By
Ricardo
Murer
B.S.
in
Computer
Science
(USP)
and
Master's
Degree
in
Communications
(USP).
Specialist
in
digital
strategy
and
new
technologies.
Follow@rdmurer
People
are
not
made
of
bits,
and
chats
are
not
conversations.
Meeting
others
is
beyond
digital
interfaces.
Is
it
possible
to
imagine
a
planet
of
connected
loners?
Is
it
possible
for
us
to
be
together
yet
completely
distant
from
one
another?
Are
we
building
or
breaking
down
our
interpersonal
relations,
increasingly
more
frequent
today
via
electronic
interfaces?
On
the
other
hand,
our
society
experiences
a
moment
of
transition,
especially
in
the
major
cities,
where
more
and
more
people
are
living
by
themselves.
Could
the
social
networks
be
playing
a
psychological
support
role
to
millions
of
loners
around
the
globe?
How
much
of
this
psychological
comfort
is
there
in
having
"hundreds"
of
friends,
or
in
receiving
hundreds
of
"likes"
to
a
photo
at
the
beach?
What
is
more,
to
what
extent
is
the
virtual
community's
space,
its
remoteness
and
illusion
perceived
as
such
by
million
of
users?
According
to
Sherry
Turkley:
"We
live
in
a
technological
universe
where
we
remain
in
constant
communication
with
each
other.
And
by
doing
so,
we
have
sacrificed
conversations
for
a
simple
connection."
(TURKLE,
2011).
The
Internet
has
ceased
to
be
a
technological
innovation
for
quite
some
time
now.
Psychologists,
sociologists
and
anthropologists
today
are
attracted
to
social
networks
like
bees
to
honey.
After
all,
millions
people
around
the
world
are
migrating
to
"the
other
side
of
the
screen",
and
into
Facebook,
in
particular,
revealing
their
feelings,
ideas
and
day-‐to-‐day
explicitly
and
unrestrained.
Stephen
Marche
(MARCHE,
2012),
mentions
an
Australian
study
by
Tracii
Ryan
and
Sophia
Xenos
of
the
University
of
Melbourne,
where
the
researchers
found
a
correlation
between
Facebook
users
and
narcissism:
"Facebook
users
have
higher
narcissism,
exhibitionism
and
leadership
levels
than
those
who
do
not
use
Facebook".
Actually,
social
networks
(an
on
Facebook
in
particular)
it
is
commonplace
to
speak
of
one's
self,
"sharing"
feelings,
writing
and
posting
anything
frenetically,
reaching
the
highest
volume
and
audience
possible.
Could
this
be
a
symptom
from
being
lonely?
Since
loneliness
can
be
quite
subjective
where
one
would
feel
alone
despite
being
among
many.
Therefore,
by
raising
my
interaction
level
I
could
be
desiring
to
"receive
more
than
giving",
to
be
noticed,
and
to
gain
more
psychological
support.
The
quantity
of
social
interaction
to
this
people
is
important.
And
in
this
case,
their
loneliness
is
not
because
of
the
social
networks
like
Facebook.
The
Internet
is
just
another
form
of
expression,
accessible,
easy
to
use,
and
which
despite
being
superficial,
serves
to
relieve
the
feeling
of
being
alone.
Meanwhile,
lonely
individual
continue
to
grow
in
numbers
around
the
world.
1
2. According
to
data
from
American
consulting
firm
Euromonitor,
over
270
million
people
in
the
world,
almost
4%
of
the
world's
population,
lived
alone
in
2011,
representing
a
growth
of
27.6%
since
2006,
and
77%
since
1996.
Developing
nations
currently
hold
almost
half
of
one-‐person
homes,
or
130.7
million
people,
against
107.5
million
in
2006,
representing
a
growth
of
21.6%.
With
that,
I
do
not
mean
to
say
that
social
networks
are
harboring
the
lonely
individuals
of
the
planet,
but
that,
when
we
are
connected,
including
in
synchronous
interactions
such
as
a
chat,
for
example,
we
are
not
engaged
in
a
face
to
face
conversation
with
the
other
person.
We
are
alone.
Just
look
around
you
and
you
will
realize
how
lonely
"being
connected"
is
when
we
sit
in
front
of
a
computer
or
some
other
gadget.
If
the
TV
is
a
collective
experience
that
obliterated
dialog
(watching
a
soap
opera
with
the
family,
for
instance),
the
computer
and
the
new
interactive
gadgets
are
suppressing
the
collective
presence.
The
collective
is
always
"virtualized",
on
the
other
side
of
the
screen.
In
that
case,
social
isolation
is
real,
concrete
and
is
directly
linked
to
online
activity.
In
the
social
networks
the
danger
is
even
greater
because
social
isolation
becomes
worse
as
people
substitute
personal
contact
with
several
interactive
tools.
It
is
impossible
to
learn
of
a
person's
character
through
his
or
her
Facebook
profile,
photos
or
online
conversations.
Even
more
critical
is
the
fact
that
this
virtual
presence
can
also
be
substituted
by
some
binary
construction.
Avatars
are
being
used
to
treat
children
with
autism
(ZEYNEP,
2012),
chatbots
or
socialbots
to
be
more
generic
(BOSHMAF,
2011),
software
programs
that
behave
like
people,
converse
in
chat
rooms
or
tweet
(such
as
@trackgirl,
for
example),
and
completely
false
profiles,
virtual
holograms,
proliferate
the
social
networks.
Which
takes
us
into
the
dangerous
universe
of
digital
illusion,
where
even
the
relations
we
nurture
could
be
false
and
deceptive.
The
social
virtual
universe
is
today
an
essential
part
of
the
reality
and
daily
lives
of
people,
but
as
Jaron
Lanier
well
put
it:
"the
first
principle
of
this
new
culture
is
that
all
reality,
including
human
beings,
is
a
huge
information
system."
(LANIER,
2011).
Once
converted
into
binary
codes,
we
are
standardized
according
to
pre-‐defined
data
structures.
It
is
not
just
our
conversations,
pictures
or
videos,
but
we
ourselves.
Technology
is
not
yet
capable
of
simulating
(and
it
will
always
be
a
simulation)
any
human
feeling.
In
essence,
we
could
teleport
from
this
side
of
the
machine
to
escape
loneliness,
only
to
find
it
waiting
for
us
on
the
other
side.
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