16 January

I think it should seem strange to us, that at the same time the ‘world has never been more connected’, through social media, we have an epidemic of loneliness and isolation. That seems like a paradox, but it isn’t when you throw away one basic assumption. That people being connected makes them and the world a better and happier place. Like Rene Girard, I believe the opposite, that the more connected and social we are, the more angry and violent societies will become. I call modern cultures high school cultures, because that’s literally the social model we’ve built them around. Within that culture, togetherness and being social will seem an intrinsically good thing. Nobody wants to be the ‘loner’ at school. But connecting people causes violence. It does that because humans when acting together focus mostly on one thing, their status within a group. That status gives them an identity. Without it, they’re literally nothing, as far as the group and wider society is concerned. And then their group clashes with thousands of other groups, trying to do the same thing. What I call ‘team sports’, or some call status games. We know the purpose of team sports is for one team to win. And even players on the same team want to differentiate themselves from other players on that team. The more we allow social media to dominate every aspect of our lives, and team sports is its business model, the more violent and dysfunctional societies will become. The more connected we are, the more angry and violent and lonely we will be. I think we’re seeing that every day. We all went to school, we all saw and lived the tensions of this continuous battle for identity and status there. That’s now all of our lives. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf