Thursday, October 6, 2016

digital connection, digital loneliness

Passed along in email was this languorous essay on the separations imposed by increasingly popular social media ... and the meditation that can help loosen their vice-like grip.

And, quite aside from the drug-like gadgetry that separates what it claims to conjoin, there is the single life lived by many Swedes and ex-patriots in Sweden, which has a less Miracle-Glued view of living a fulfilling life (marriage, children, partnership) ... and the loneliness that can evolve. Sweden has the highest proportion of single people in Europe and yet dating can be hard.

2 comments:

  1. Mass media was predicted to bring us together. But Marshal Mcluhan predicted back in the 50's that it would splinter us and he's been proven right. As to the swedes, maybe they're hard to get along with?

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    1. They are just spread thin on a 2D world map. If the planet was a globe, which it is, the Swedes are just a few hours flight away from the Canadians and the Japanese. Yet, once the Swedes are sandwiched between Finland and Norway on a 2d map, the mind is conditioned to think that it takes a dozen time zone hours or more to meet a spouse who is working in Los Angeles. The media has been quite alright, what is too fundamental beyond reason is the manner in which all maps portray distance between family members.

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