Comment by majormajor
8 days ago
As we replace more and more human interaction with technology, and see more and more loneliness emerge, "more technology" does not seem like the answer to mental health issues that arise.
I think Terry Pratchett put it best in one of his novels: "Individuals aren't naturally paid-up members of the human race, except biologically. They need to be bounced around by the Brownian motion of society, which is a mechanism by which human beings constantly remind one another that they are...well...human beings."
We have build a cheap infrastructure for mass low quality interaction (the internet) which is principally parasocial. Generations ago we used to build actual physical meeting places, but we decided to financialise property, and therefore land, and therefore priced people out of socialising.
It is a shame because Pratchett was absolutely right.
Aren't mall/parks/arcade used to be cheap and comfortable socialising places? They are in my country and as per "Strange Things" were in USA. Malls are dying in USA because people decided they prefer to keep everything online.
They still are. Some people are just trapped online like they say- socializing still exists.
One generation ago.
(Generation in the typical reproductive age sense, not the advertiser's "Boomer" "Gen X" and all that shit)
Technology connects us to everything except each other.
I love that quote!
I don't remember coming across it (but I suffer from CRAFT -Can't Remember A Fucking Thing).
Which book?
Men At Arms, first chapter.
I mean we could use technology to make a world that's less horrible to live in, which logically would reduce the overall need of therapists and their services. But I think my government calls that Communism.