The South African Civil Society Information Service

How Social Media Makes You Lonely

15 May 2014

Loneliness has become the most common ailment of the modern world. One of the possible reasons for this is the online social network. We're collecting friends like stamps and not distinguishing between quantity and quality. We're  exchanging the deep meaning and intimacy of friendship for chats instead of having conversations. By doing so, we're sacrificing conversation for mere connection. And so a paradoxical situation is created in which we claim to have many friends while actually being lonely. Social networks aren’t just changing what we're doing, but also who we are.

Watch the short movie, ‘Innovation of Loneliness’ to learn more.

This movie was made by Shimi Cohen in response to Sherry Turkle's TED talk, Connected, But Alone.

© Shimi Cohen

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You can find this page online at http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/2007.