Do you think Technology makes us more lonely...?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨CHEFKOCH@lemmy.ml⁩ to ⁨asklemmy@lemmy.ml⁩

This is a philosophical question, which means there is no right or wrong answer in a traditional term, but keep trolling to yourself. If you have no own opinion or respect before such question, please do not answer, thanks. I am not looking for low-quality answers such as ... no .. yes ...

I just wanted to ask what Lemmy, or the Community, things about Tech in general and the influence about how we proceed our own reality in general.

Do you think that Technology made us as species better or do you think that Tech makes us overall more lonely because everything gets faster and faster, more optimized and at the end of the day we're just searching for meaning in our lives? Love, fulfillment and such things, which Tech cannot entirely replace.

At the end of your own journey, which I like to call life you basically die alone, maybe with people who love surrounded but you go alone into the void. Would you say that getting the latest iPhone or xyz made you a better individual or helped to improve your overall fulfillment, or would you say that such Tech toys and gimmicks are potentially a placeholder for our own emptiness....?

Legitimate feedback, opinions are welcome.

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3arn0wl@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
Question of the day! Obviously there are no definitive answers. So I've only got more questions... sorry.

I wonder if our tech choices project our thoughts / feelings / worries...

Hardware... Do we buy a certain brand as a talisman to tell the world we belong to a particular club? And do we put stickers on our laptops to emphasise that? Do we get the latest bit of kit to say "I've made it"? Does staring at a screen isolate us from engaging with those around us? And do we actually want that? A nicer world inside the device than outside? Do we prefer the voices in our tech to those in real life?

Software... Do we play multi-player games just for interaction with others? Are we using social media to 'piss into the wind'? Or do we want / need to engage with others? Is Lemmy a club of like-minded individuals, where we feel safe and secure in the knowledge that - mostly - people here think / feel the same way as I do? Are we addicted to up-ticks to confirm our views? Or to massage our ego that we've got a certain level of popularity?

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ttmrichter@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
Tech has no agency. As such technology makes us do nothing. We are the agents in the relationship.

If your tech is making you feel lonely, sit down and see what it is about the tech that does that. Then expunge the portions of the tech doing this to you. You are the one with agency, after all. You are the one picking up that phone, turning on that computer, firing up that video game, logging in to that social media site. If you feel compelled to do any of that, look closer at the source of that compulsion. You'll find to your shock that it's not the tech doing it. It's people.

The cut the people out that are making you feel lonely. Foster relationships instead with people who don't make you feel lonely.

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purplerabbit@forum.purplerabbit.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
Its the anology of a pencil, it can be used to stick someone's eye out or be used to draw things. Nothing inheriently makes us do anything - we choose how something makes us react. But it really depends on how people use technology that matters.

Which also plays into how I believe in the power of the individual. You have complete control of yourself, but you need to exercise that control. Most people nowadays are so controlled by evil forces which hinder their development and most people's minds are enslaved by the things of our time. For example playing the latest video games, getting in on the latest fashion, buying the latest car, caring/impressing others.

But to answer your question essentially tech companies are mostly controlled by evil satanic forces which use technology for the disadvantage of mankind and it breeds all kinds of destructive things such as mental health issues (which I think incorporates lonliness). I mean lets be real here fifa is an absolute scam where they get kids to buy fifa points in the hopes of receiving a rare player and they essentially waste their money, what's worse is these people buy fifa each year when very little has changed with the game. Its an absolute scam and its kinda sad to see so many kids being disheartened by not getting their player of choise. But hey, its ok because the CEOs of EA have their nice fancy cars and their yachts and their mansions.

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mccoubreym@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
I doubt that technology in general causes loneliness but there has been research showing that those who use more social media are more lonely.

I wouldn't say technology is causing loneliness but the ways that technology is applied to social situations can cause loneliness.

For example:

I would of thought the printing press served to inform people of news, helping reduce the feeling of alienation of people who are different.

Using video conference software, such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom, to facilitate working from home will make us more lonely as we are able to communicate less frequently with others and there are some ways of communicating that are hard to facilitate over this software.
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ksynwa@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
I think technology is a tool and inherently it does not make users more or less lonely. It can do either depending on how it is put to use.

Pervasive loneliness is I think a product of the capitalist political-economy. Most people who work are drained of the time and energy that could have been spent socialising. It also atomises us as individuals and cultivates an individualistic mentality. If neighbours don't have to rely on each other but rather have to work for eight hours a day so that they can afford to be customers of large coporation which meetd their basic needs, they will not be able to find the time to form tangible social bonds.

Technology then plugs this hole because it is something people can use from the comfort of their homes after a tiresome workday. And again we have to end up being customers for corporations who because of their profit motive do not solve this problem but only exploit it. So I go with this option:

would you say that such Tech toys and gimmicks are potentially a placeholder for our own emptiness…?

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DamnGoodTech@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
Does a wrench make us more lonely?

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arthur@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
I always think of this question is a bit of a scapegoat.

Technology doesn't dictate our happiness, we just imprint our own feelings of loneliness on to the technology to relieve ourselves of any responsibility.

When I find myself hesitant to reach out to my loved ones it's not because I have too many choices and how is a contact them it's because I am hesitant to take away time with myself.

We kill time with video games or social media but before that it was books and other dead tree media. It's not the technology it's ourselves.

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ganymede@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
Agree with others in here: it depends what you do with it.

What is clear imo is we cannot trust anyone other than ourselves and our warm collective communities (online or otherwise), to shape the role technology plays in our lives.

We have access to amazing technology yet the majority waste this magnificent gift on what is basically toxic waste.

That's why places like lemmy give me hope, because more people here seem to "get it".

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X51@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
I think technology is more reliable than the people in our lives and we migrate towards reliability. This makes people even less reliable than the technology around us and it feeds a cycle that isolates us from others. The people who design the technology then manipulate their products to make them more addictive and feed what we respond to.

I have never felt regret over making one choice over another. My regrets in life is that the options I had to choose between were never acceptable to me from the beginning. Life is sometimes a process of choosing between the lesser of two evils. I would not describe myself as lonely, but if I was lonely, it'd definitely be because i chose to be lonely over some other option.

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sexy_peach@feddit.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
I think that it's a common myth. In certain situations it can be true, but not generally.

It's a case of people thinking the past was better than it actually was.

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- embaixadordaursal@lemmygrad.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  Capitalism make people lonely. Technology only expose better the problem
  
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- gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
  Like that picture in the train with ppl with phones and before with ppl with papers.
  
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  - ttmrichter@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
    Show me now a picture of people walking around public spaces reading papers.
    
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Victim_0@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago
Books make us lonely too. But it's ok to be lonely

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