I have a deep love for my friends, both old and new, and I straddle the line between being an extrovert and an introvert. I enjoy sharing intimate details about my life with them, including my daily experiences, dating life, and even my sexual encounters. We engage in lively debates about world politics, including the current tensions between Lebanon and Israel, as well as the latest fashion trends. “Sex and the City” is a testament to the strong bond between women and how friends can become like family. However, some may argue that we have the ability to choose our friends, but I firmly believe that our connections are predetermined by a higher force.
Spiraling down the vortex
I am actually a realist with a tendency towards pessimism: I don’t really think, that we can buy or invent ourselves out of the climate crisis for example. Therefore, usually I would also say that our communicative abilities shrinked to a minimum due to our extensive mobile-phone-usage and social media brainwashing. But I disagree. Think it through: human beings cannot stand loneliness. During the Nazi regime doctors wanted to test the effects of human interaction and what effects and consequences it had on our behaviors. They used babies as lab-rats. They took them from their mothers and neither spoke to them or interacted with them in any way. They didn’t touch them or carried them in their arms. The babies couldn’t feel the calming temperature of their mother’s skin on theirs. And they watched. The babies eventually died. Human interaction changed its forms multiple times during history: first only the spoken word, then the written word (letters, books), later on the first telephones, radio, TV. Eventually the whole media-evolution ended in the smartphone – in social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Tiktok. Familiar names, familiar brands. Of course, we are addicted – likes, shares, comments. I would lie, if I said I didn’t like Instagram or didn’t like to spend my time watching my friends drinking coffee or seeing happily that my favorite author’s writing another book! We are connected worldwide. These platforms gave us another option of interaction and meeting friends. Often, people have friends IRL and on the Internet with one they share a coffee and with the other they tag each other in “Harry Potter” – Fanfiction, the one shared interest that brought them together. Thanks to the algorithm. It’s like a spiral down a sea vortex just way stronger and way more dangerous. You are officially trapped in your own bubble, but hey, at least you can share it with people like you!
You are never alone, there is always someone watching you!
Imagine what life would be like without Instagram: what would I do while I was waiting for my bus or watching TV. Maybe we simply can’t be satisfied anymore with just doing one thing, that isn’t crucial to us. Waiting, watching TV, sitting on the toilet. We could and should always do more. Live our lives to its fullest and even cross the borders to see if there is even more life possible for us to find, see and wreck in the end. We are like parasites (I still haven’t watched the movie, even though everyone on Instagram told me to)!
And of what can you be sure, if you see an ant in your house? There is always another one (probably a whole colony!). Just the same with us: we can be lonely, but we are never really alone. What an irony. Dante’s divine comedy is nothing in comparison to real life. Some of us, just don’t get the real joke! You do, right? I mean we are friends; we formed a connection via the Internet right now! Text me, by occasion, I would love to know, whether you feel the same!
Love,
Anna
