Think your friends think of you as a friend? Odds are, they don’t. It isn’t that they dislike you, although of course that could be the truth. More likely, they just don’t have the bandwidth to put you into their inner circle. We crave connection, but we’re tethered to tech, not each other. Is it even possible to have them simultaneously?
Tech is easy. Humans? Complicated. And for most people, the easier-traveled road is the likely one taken.
For me, the eternal researcher, it starts with questions.
- Are social agents with their special form of soul-satisfying ‘empathy’ good, harmful, or neutral for us?
- As we expect more of social technology, do we expect less of each other?
- Do we want connection if we can have no control over it?
More, as a romantic, I wonder: if friendship nears extinction, what will become of love? If we can’t define connection, how can we expect to feel it?
