The movie HER released in 2013 was ahead of its time. The main character played by the acting titan Joaquim Phoenix plays a lonely single man in a dystopian futuristic world where he develops a serious relationship with a computer chip. The virtual sexual relationship between them is conducted in cyberspace. I found it irksome to watch. It felt like a documentary of the not-too-distant future rather than a fictional fantasy.
A recent study confirmed that 40% of Americans would have sex with a robot. At a debate between a top psychiatrist and a robot manufacturer that I attended in 2018, the two parties might as well have been speaking Chinese and Hindi to each other. Any concern the psychiatrist had for the impact of this type of dynamic on human psychology fell on deaf ears.
Of course, the internet, technology, and online dating have given us the opportunity to connect more easily with people all over the world. This is a positive thing. I have friends whose marriages and offspring originated on dating apps. My 70-year-old mother-in-law is happily engaged to someone she met online!
We have a record number of platforms and apps to connect on, but we need to question the motives of those pulling the strings. Unfortunately, they don’t have our best interests at heart; exploiting our insecurities, mining our data, and poaching our cash are the main drivers rather than encouraging true connection. Loneliness is on the rise and thought to be as bad for your heart as smoking. In our hyper-connected world, many of us are lonelier than ever.
Lockdowns have worked in the favour of big tech companies and reduced people’s ability to interact in real life. We should be very mindful of the ways in which this is affecting our basic human psychology and our ability to talk to each other face to face.
We were not designed to be screen people. The magnificence of the human spirit will not be reduced to an algorithm, the poetic beauty of a first kiss can never be replaced by an emoji.
So put your phone down, shut your laptop, go out and talk to a stranger in a local café. You might meet a kindred spirit; you might hone your flirting skills; you might make a new friend; you might just meet the love of your life. You might save someone’s life. It might even be your own.
Image source: The Daily Mail
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