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As more teenagers gravitate toward online social networks (if not Facebook, then Instagram, etc.), I'm concerned that not enough of them will feel lonely. I re

As more teenagers gravitate toward online social networks (if not Facebook, then Instagram, etc.), I'm concerned that not enough of them will feel lonely. I recently watched a Louis C.K. interview about young people and technology, which struck a chord with me. I agree that adolescents benefit from a sense of boredom and isolation because it encourages them to cultivate stronger in-person social networks: http://teamcoco.com/video/louis-ck-springsteen-cell-phone http://teamcoco.com/video/louis-ck-springsteen-cell-phone

fossuser 13y ago
I wouldn't worry about facebook preventing people from feeling lonely - it doesn't really solve that problem. If anything facebook allows you to more easily cultivate in person social networks by making preliminary communication much easier.
vdaniuk 13y ago
I am flabbergasted. Adolescents benefit from isolation? And you're citing a comedian? Care to cite some serious sources?
- dwaltrip 13y ago
  What the parent comment is trying to get at is that many people today do not know how to sit quietly alone with their thoughts. If they have a single spare moment, in less than half a second they whip out their phones and mindlessly check fb, etc. Due to this, they are less pensive and self reflective. While hard to test, it seems like a reasonable theory.
  - vdaniuk 13y ago
    Really? I am not sure. We've got a lot of quirks in our cognition and intuition is not really a good heuristic for studying human mind.
    - zxcdw 13y ago
      Haven't you noticed it yourself, that especially younger people seem to be engaged with their mobile devices whenever there is a few minute idle time, when e.g. waiting for a class to start. Quiet hallway, 10-20 people, all but a few with their noses in their phones.
      - vdaniuk 13y ago
        Of course, I've noticed. But is it a bad thing? Reality is pretty dull for 90% of humans.
        deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
        pirateking 13y ago
        It is bad in the sense that it is an alternative, and growingly a replacement, to using our biological escape from Reality - the Imagination. Actively engaging the Imagination has a much greater potential to cross over into Reality and affect it in such a way that escape is no longer necessary. Escaping from Reality by relying on external input feeds and output sinks only passively engages the Imagination and does not produce the same internal Imagination-Reality-Manifestation loop. As with most things, a healthy balance of both internal and external escapism is probably the best. Calvin and Hobbes explains this the best.
        vdaniuk 13y ago
        Right. First someone says that isolation is good for adolescencents citing a comedian, you are arguing that mix of external and internal escapism is probably the best as the comic explains. I am not a subject matter expert, but comics are not an authority on psychology for me.
        VLM 13y ago
        Authoritarianism is not much of an argument. None the less, I'll see your making fun of comedians (and who is better to comment on the human condition than a comedian?) and raise the stakes to Zen Buddhism. "And Buddha said, the eightfold path to enlightenment begins with posting to your facebook wall and ends with spend lots of time making your linkedin profile look pretty" Oh no wait maybe I misquoted. I have observed as I get older that teens suffer from many self caused maladies, although an excess of calm introspection has never made that top 10 list. Given observation that teens are legendary for causing enormous amounts of suffering because of a lack of even a tiny amount of thinking, that would imply the scales are likely tipped far in excess away from a healthy level of introspection. Its unlikely given an extreme situation that a return to something approaching normal would be seriously controversial.
  - smoyer 13y ago
    I'm naturally introverted ... and what I want it MORE time to sit quietly with my thoughts.
- hawkharris 13y ago
  I presented my concern as a matter of opinion. I never asserted that it was a scientific fact. If you would like to take the conversation in a more scientific direction, you're welcome to introduce studies.
  - vdaniuk 13y ago
    Sure. This is first study that I've found. "The findings revealed that social isolation was associated with an increased risk for depressive symptoms, suicide attempts, and low self-esteem." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17849936 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17849936

fossuser 13y ago

I wouldn't worry about facebook preventing people from feeling lonely - it doesn't really solve that problem. If anything facebook allows you to more easily cultivate in person social networks by making preliminary communication much easier.

vdaniuk 13y ago

I am flabbergasted. Adolescents benefit from isolation? And you're citing a comedian? Care to cite some serious sources?

dwaltrip 13y ago
What the parent comment is trying to get at is that many people today do not know how to sit quietly alone with their thoughts. If they have a single spare moment, in less than half a second they whip out their phones and mindlessly check fb, etc. Due to this, they are less pensive and self reflective. While hard to test, it seems like a reasonable theory.
- vdaniuk 13y ago
  Really? I am not sure. We've got a lot of quirks in our cognition and intuition is not really a good heuristic for studying human mind.
  - zxcdw 13y ago
    Haven't you noticed it yourself, that especially younger people seem to be engaged with their mobile devices whenever there is a few minute idle time, when e.g. waiting for a class to start. Quiet hallway, 10-20 people, all but a few with their noses in their phones.
    - vdaniuk 13y ago
      Of course, I've noticed. But is it a bad thing? Reality is pretty dull for 90% of humans.
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
      - pirateking 13y ago
        It is bad in the sense that it is an alternative, and growingly a replacement, to using our biological escape from Reality - the Imagination. Actively engaging the Imagination has a much greater potential to cross over into Reality and affect it in such a way that escape is no longer necessary. Escaping from Reality by relying on external input feeds and output sinks only passively engages the Imagination and does not produce the same internal Imagination-Reality-Manifestation loop. As with most things, a healthy balance of both internal and external escapism is probably the best. Calvin and Hobbes explains this the best.
        vdaniuk 13y ago
        Right. First someone says that isolation is good for adolescencents citing a comedian, you are arguing that mix of external and internal escapism is probably the best as the comic explains. I am not a subject matter expert, but comics are not an authority on psychology for me.
        VLM 13y ago
        Authoritarianism is not much of an argument. None the less, I'll see your making fun of comedians (and who is better to comment on the human condition than a comedian?) and raise the stakes to Zen Buddhism. "And Buddha said, the eightfold path to enlightenment begins with posting to your facebook wall and ends with spend lots of time making your linkedin profile look pretty" Oh no wait maybe I misquoted. I have observed as I get older that teens suffer from many self caused maladies, although an excess of calm introspection has never made that top 10 list. Given observation that teens are legendary for causing enormous amounts of suffering because of a lack of even a tiny amount of thinking, that would imply the scales are likely tipped far in excess away from a healthy level of introspection. Its unlikely given an extreme situation that a return to something approaching normal would be seriously controversial.
- smoyer 13y ago
  I'm naturally introverted ... and what I want it MORE time to sit quietly with my thoughts.
hawkharris 13y ago
I presented my concern as a matter of opinion. I never asserted that it was a scientific fact. If you would like to take the conversation in a more scientific direction, you're welcome to introduce studies.
- vdaniuk 13y ago
  Sure. This is first study that I've found. "The findings revealed that social isolation was associated with an increased risk for depressive symptoms, suicide attempts, and low self-esteem." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17849936 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17849936