I've been meaning to write this for some time now and was prompted by last weeks Apprentice on BBC and my accompanied Twitter feed.
There has been much discussion and speculation about the plentiful and growing social networks and their 'effect' on individuals and their abilities to share and connect in person outside of these networks.
Some make quite frightening reading claiming that digital social interaction can detach people, one particular book mentioned in this article states they can make people 'less human'.
Well, as my old mum would have said "everything in moderation"
It's probably true that if someone had little or no direct human contact and their only means of communication was digital, there probably would be some sort of clinical detachment, but that's not what these networks represent for the majority of people. As well as being fun and informative, they can be lifelines.
The TV series I mentioned regularly attracts many Twitter users to become quite vocal, and in many cases hilariously funny; in entertainment value alone, it's worth every moment, however, on a more serious note, for those sitting and watching alone, it's a way of feeling like you're surrounded by an extended family - better- it's a family you have chosen.
I think it's often underestimated just how important connection to others really is, and for many people, come Friday night, they may speak to no-one until work comes around again on Monday. Yes, we all happily assume that 'everyone' has networks of family and friends that we meet and go out with in our social hours, but that's not true for a lot of people. Those same people don't want to be identified as a 'billy no-mates' because what does that say about them? It might reflect on how others view them. Instead, they go home and fabricate a social life, maybe join the ever increasing numbers accessing dating sites when all they really want is a friend - someone to talk to, have a joke with or simply share a thought or opinion with.
Then there are those whose isolation is even greater; unemployment will quickly isolate even the most competent and connected of people; those with physical or psychological problems; or simply being older and infirm.
Call it by all the long names we like, there's another name for the impact of isolation, one which sums up the result - loneliness.
Many lonely people have become the pariahs of our society - outcasts; at least that's how many of them see themselves. To them if feels as if no-one cares, that no-one notices them or wants to know them, they're often struggling with other issues that their situation brings like financial insecurity, fear of the future, mental ill health which so often follows the isolated. They are sometimes shunned by the active, connected folk and this simply drives them further into their isolation. However, through developing social networks, they can become meaningful again. The RSA wrote about social networks being the key to breaking the link between social isolation and unemployment and I think we can include in this the digital connections that can free many of their individual loneliness and isolation.
I'm aware that much of this has been said before and probably better, but I was prompted to write it when I noticed a number of people complaining on Twitter about people tweeting comments on the TV programme. To the complainers I would ask just a little tolerance, some of those people might actually need to enjoy this in the company of others, and the company of others may only, for them, come in digital form; please be tolerant.
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