Lonely or not?

“The always-on lifestyle” addresses an argument that has become rather commonplace in our lifetimes. However, it looks at the debate from a new view. To say that we are always plugged in to enhance our experiences is something I personally have never heard before. It’s an interesting argument for sure, but I’m not sure I agree entirely with the author. It can also be argued that by being “always-on” we lose something from our daily experiences. It can be as cliché as missing a passing butterfly or as serious as missing out on real world interactions because we are plugged into a virtual one. This issue is addressed more in the reading “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?”, which argues that our technology is isolating us leading to a rise in solitary lifestyles, and with it loneliness. The article recognizes that being alone and being lonely are two different things, but it also makes the point that they can be linked, and as we grow our superficial online relationships, we tend to distance ourselves from our deeper real world relationships. I believe that it isn’t quite as black and white as these two articles argue. There is a middle ground. The virtual world can be fantastic for keeping in touch with relatives and friends in other countries, but when it is used to ask a question to your housemate downstairs or who maybe just stepped out for a minute, it begins to enter into tricky territory. We need those easy every day social interactions to keep us from feeling isolated and lonely. We need to ensure that we keep up with real friends in real life or we may find ourselves like Yvette Vickers.