A Connected Detachment

Every so often an article having to do with societal trends catches my eye, and this one is the latest.  A decade or so ago, a book by Robert Putnam, "Bowling Alone", talked about the demise of community and the need to reconnect with each other.  Since then, we have a much more "connected" world, due to the growth of the internet and its facilitation of social networking sites, on-line dating, the crowd-sourcing of ideas, and sharing of niche interests through Pinterest.

This has been so effective that we are becoming inseparable from our smartphones and the other portable electronic devices that airlines restrict us from using in-flight.  When the flight lands and the attendant gives us permission to reconnect with the world, ring tones and buzzing notifications are heard up and down the aisles.  Even aircraft are starting to provide us with Wi-Fi so that at 6 or 7 miles up, we can still stay in touch.  And yet, while we are staying connected electronically, we are more and more reluctant to reach out to the person in the next seat and make contact.  Even when we are with our friends, whether it be in one-one conversation, or at a church service or a sporting event or a concert, we interact more with our cellphones than with our friends.  We even send each other messages or links when sharing the same bench seat.

The author of the linked article decries this phenomenon as simply a veneer of connectedness, an illusion of community, when we are really more alone than ever.  We forget how to converse if we can't tap it out on a virtual keyboard.  Couple this with the extraordinary realism available in high-end multi-player video games and the stunning special effects formerly only available in movie theaters now right there on your home TV equipment, and it's a wonder we would ever leave the house at all, ever see another person in the flesh, were it not because we had to go to the store or to the office.  Virtual reality, digital community, is becoming more appealing than experiencing genuine community by interacting with flesh & blood analog human beings.

So when will the day come when the extent of our interaction with others is in a digital environment, with their avatars instead of their actual faces?  I'm going to guess it'll happen before I pass on to the next world, which no doubt will be my digitally synthesized soul residing in a Heaven that is a fully scaleable and personalized computer graphics environment, replete with digital angels and golden streets as special effects.