Why Are People Becoming More Lonely in the Internet Age?
Why Are People Becoming More Lonely in the Internet Age?
Why are people becoming more lonely in the Internet age? This is actually an inevitable result of the development of media technologies.
Media, as an extension of human beings, is a fundamental axiom in communication studies.
In the past, media technologies meant that humans were both the source and the transmitter of communication. Humans were also the carriers and tools of content dissemination. Communication relied on shouting, using hands, or walking. While people saw each other's content, they also saw the living, breathing individuals behind the information. In this stage, the production, transmission, and consumption of information were not fundamentally separated.
However, with modern media technologies, humans have been greatly extended. The production, transmission, and consumption of information have become fundamentally separated. In this new media context, we can only hear voices but not see the person, read the text but not see the individual behind it.
Living for a long time in simulated impressions that others create and disseminate inevitably leads to estrangement between real, living people. Along with this sense of estrangement, there also comes anxiety.
The root of this anxiety lies in human fragmentation. New media technologies have caused this fragmentation. There is a part for production, a part for transmission, and a part for consumption. Humans are split into three parts.
Everyone extends themselves very far and interweaves with others. This creates a web. What now breaks into the heart is no longer a deep, emotional gaze, but a stream of bits.
People frequently pierce each other, but it’s no longer easy to be moved. This is because the bit stream is devoid of warmth—it reaches the brain and nervous system but does not reach the heart.
All of this is about me and us, but it is almost irrelevant to our inner selves. Together, we weave a web, but each person hides away their own heart. Therefore, the more advanced media technology becomes, the more our inner world is neglected. This is the root of modern human alienation, anxiety, and loneliness.
Media is an extension of humans, and loneliness is the result of humans being forgotten.
As media technology advances further, human beings will eventually be completely forgotten. This future is virtual reality—a living web.
Given this major trend, what can we do now?