Digital Technology has penetrated every part of our life. We google all our needs. When we want to know the meaning of a word and check its spelling, we google, when we are looking for ideas to speak and to write, we google, when we want to eat something special, we google to check its availability, when we want to know the way to travel, we google.
Sadly, we google at the detriment of human connections and interaction! Human connections are the only means we can overcome our loneliness, feeling of isolation and seclusion. Many people, especially the youth and young adults tend to believe that digital technology based social networks and being in connection with internet sites can help in overcoming loneliness. However, it is not so. The informed people and relationship experts believe that having constant access to technology, especially the smartphones, can prevent us from making personal connections. For many people, it has become a habit to reach for a smartphone any time which is making people lonelier than before.
Perhaps, we have become slaves of the internet, digital technology and cypher communication. Certainly, the internet is a useful tool to make our life easy and simple. however, it has taken over and enslaved us to the extent that we cannot live without it. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are many young adults and even older people (unfortunately many children) glued to internet and its related operations for several hours a day. Certainly not all the activities that we do on the internet are productive.
Never the less, if we are to ask, what is the cause of loneliness in human beings; disconnectedness within ourselves, with people around us and with the nature around us? Internet creates an apparent connectivity which is false and temporary. It can be unreliable, erratic and impersonal. Human beings are ‘connected people’. We cannot live in an island. We need to live in harmony with ourselves, with others and with nature that sustains us. The disconnectedness pushes us to loneliness, emptiness, seclusion creating blankness in our mind and heart.
