Social Alienation - it seems to be getting worse

[UF6]

I highly recommend reading Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. This is a very short book, but it places empathizes on many points of society since the 1980s with the deregulation of entertainment/news/ etc. in the United States of America under president Roland Ragen. Postman draws comparisons between Orwell and Huxley about where people would be in a society and it is pointing towards Brave New World. That aside, the book talks about how citizens' rights are exchanged for consumers' rights, where the only point is a cradle-to-grave outlook for the individual. Postman also talks about 24-hour news, and how it became a service to a commodity, where the quality of the information becomes lesser, and the extent of advertisements over the progression of the news has increased.

Now, I know what you might be thinking, "How does this relate to today?" Well, in some discernment it does, but for many of us on this website or elsewhere it can be felt today. I do not use the television or watch anything on it, as it is utter twaddle from some of the commentaries made earlier. But, with further power being put into companies to how the content quality has decreased in our politics, health, wealth, and environment, it is not shocking that a succinctly around half of the country votes in elections (voter suppression aside). To the individual who sees the hopelessness of the world, that they inhabit, they may feel no obligation that they can change the trajectory of where society is heading by voting alone.

The rise of prescription medicine does have a correspondence between social separation and the effects of internet usage. For teenagers that are influenced by the internet and how they see themselves to their peers, it is not unexpected that spike in juvenile anorexia correlates to viewing time on cellphones.

An Exploration of Social Circles and Prescription Drug Abuse Through Twitter

Now, the OP talked about social isolation and I am sure there are hermits in various parts of the world, but we are not talking about them. From what I have read on social isolation it boils to usage to the time it takes out of many other activities. As the world becomes more-and-more connected the interactions of human-to-human contact is far less. Social media also reflects a perfect world to an onlooker if they use Facebook that they self-reflect onto themselves from how imperfect they are, even when the people they are interacting with are their friends or co-workers.

Researchers link use of Internet, social isolation

The Internet has revolutionized the way Americans live and communicate, but at a steep social cost, according to researchers at the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society (SIQSS). Compared to those who do not use the Internet frequently, those who do—31 percent of the U.S...

news.stanford.edu

I am going to stop here since it is early in the morning and continue it later.

 

[JektheDumbass]

I've lost too many friends to make new ones. Especially since I cyber-bullied most of them to death.

 

[Raging Capybara]

You're on to something here. Being socially stunted is not actually the same as social alienation. Some people are natrually socially stunted, and its either a skill you cultivate or just a mild inconveinience you just learn to live with. We can all relate to this, given where we are.

Social alienation is completely different. I didn't pay much attention to this difference until recently. I've learned firsthand that when something fucks you up sufficently, something gets smashed or broken in your head and suddenly you cannot deal with people anymore regardless of how hard you try or how much benefit it is to you personally. There are degrees of this of course, to the point where some people shut themselves off from all interaction even electronically. This issue is a massive disaster waiting to happen, because everywhere I see withdrawal and anxiety being attributed to social awkwardness, when in reality there is far more exstensive damage lurking beneath if the person really has become alienated with society.

We're losing a lot of people to what is essentially a crippling mental disorder and if the experts can't figure this shit out, we're going to see an overall breakdown of social interaction altogether. Social alienation is far more dangerous than other problems because, hey, guess what, the person doesn't want to seek help because avoiding human contact as much as possible is the main symptom. At the same time, you can't just drag a social alien away from their computer or their smart phone because they'll be too panicked and crazed to properly interact with people and certainly too berserk to be treated with anything other than tranqs.

But what's the problem? Dude is just a lone wolf.