We are more connected than ever, but are we really closer?

Digital communication has brought people within instant reach, but being available to one another is not the same as being close. What happens to human connection when a screen makes it easier to forget who is receiving our words?

There was a time when staying in touch with someone required some effort. You phoned the house (ahem, OG landline and zero Truecaller or FokOffMense), wrote a letter, made plans or physically went to see each other. Today, most of us can reach family, friends, colleagues and complete strangers within seconds (A small ode to Facebook’s algorithm for turning my randomly saved contacts into “People you may know” 😳🙄).

We've never had this much connection at our fingertips (literally), but sometimes it seems we've become strangely disconnected from the people behind it.

A screen changes an interaction in ways we don't always notice. Someone becomes a profile picture, a contact name, an email address or a comment under a post. We can't see the expression on a person’s face when they read our words, hear the tone that would change the meaning of a sentence or notice when we realise that our words have hurt someone (I'm chronically considerate, but sometimes I feel like my filter was left at customs when I was born...).

It becomes easier to say things we might never say face to face, and easier to forget that whatever happens on the screen doesn't necessarily end there (are there any overthinkers reading this?).

You see it everywhere. People tear strangers apart in comment sections over an opinion (Ugh. You'd spend less energy if you just scrolled past). Family arguments unfold in WhatsApp groups. Someone forwards a private message that was never intended for anyone else. People share photographs of strangers for a laugh (sies), send angry emails from behind a desk or type something cruel because the recipient exists somewhere beyond the mini Optimus Prime-level device in their hand.

Age doesn't seem to make us immune either. Teenagers grew up with social media, while parents and grandparents found their own corners of Facebook and WhatsApp (unfortunately). Different generations use technology differently, but any of us can forget ourselves behind a screen.

Perhaps the strangest part is that our digital lives are not separate from our lives anymore. The colleague who receives the email still has to walk into work tomorrow. The family member in the WhatsApp group will still be sitting at the Christmas table. The stranger being mocked in a Facebook comment still has a life, worries, people who love them and a day that continues long after everyone else has scrolled past to the next seemingly amusing post.

Technology has given us something remarkable. Distance no longer decides who can be part of our lives, and people who might once have lost contact can speak every day.

Maybe the problem is not how we connect, but what becomes easier to forget while doing it. There's still a person behind every profile picture, username, email address and message.

Sometimes remembering that, before we press send, would make the digital world a considerably more human place. As per Clare Pooley, although its complete origin remains debated: "In a world where you can be anything, be kind." So, don't be k@k, be lekke! 😉

𝑪𝘢𝘵𝑐𝒉 𝘆𝙤𝘂 𝒐𝘯 𝘁𝗵𝑒 𝙁𝗹𝘪𝑝𝒔𝑖𝐝𝗲!
Ⓛ🅘ⓩ