Internet to Blame for Lack of Close Friends

Anonymous Coward writes "Duke and University of Arizona researchers are citing the Internet as one of the main contributing factors to a shrinking of social networks among Americans. People say they have fewer people they can talk to about important stuff, even if they are talking to lots more people from all over the place about unimportant stuff online."

Comments

Fear

[umbrellasd]

I agree that fear is the problem. The reason we have so much fear is that our populations are increasing heedlessly beyond the carrying capacity of the planet and the average temperatures are rising similarly causing famine, drought, flooding, the rise of infectious diseases, increasingly violent weather patterns, and so on. All because we globally are popping out additional people as fast as possible. And I mean that globally; I know darn well what the birth rates are in the U.S. We went from 4 billion to 9 billion in a few decades, after a span of 4000 years in the millions range. And we industrialized and started spewing toxins into the atmosphere: globally. People should be afraid, and people are afraid. Because we are squeezing ourselves and our planet tighter and tighter and rats don't stop to talk to each other when they are fleeing from a flood. Why are people so isolated? Because they're in a perpetual state of panic and the only thing that gives momentary release is a refuge in the very things that have created the problem: namely hiding (isolation), fucking (more population), and consuming (energy, non-renewable resources). All we do is gobble all the dwindling resources up, and produce greater numbers of ourselves to do more of the same.

I know this sounds really grim, but in the next 30 years it will sound horrifying because we'll be living the consequences in stark reality. I don't even feel an ounce of doubt about it, because the population numbers just don't lie. Population is going up exponentially and with it goes pollution and consumption of natural resources. The cycle will break, a lot of people will die, and life will change dramatically for what's left. What scares me is not knowing how to survive it. How will it come? Sweeping deathtolls from a disease? Radical political reform that lands you in a police state where most freedoms are curtailed because the general population is too foolish to curb self-destructive behaviors? Mass starvation due to a rapid and severe reduction in the amount of arable land? Where do you go? Where will be safe? What if money becomes valueless? What's your currency? What skills do you have that you can trade for food? What land will be livable? How many millions (billions?) will be competing?

There's a real possibility that the arctic cap will melt. I'm not saying it's going to happen, just that there's a significant probability. Well, OK. What do you do when there's a significant probability that 100 million people are quite suddenly going to be in desparate need of a place to live with adequate supply of food, water, and energy? How stressful and miserable is that going to be? How much crime will result? Will people start killing each other?

Those are the things I fear. I watched Katrina with a terrible feeling. Imagine that kind of displacement happening on a global scale...and it's not even that unlikely. 9 billion people. Suppose it's 15 billion in 30 years. Damn right we should be fearful. Fearful that we aren't dramatically changing the way we do things right now. Right now, because we see that it just cannot continue. Do you realize that we don't even discuss carrying capacity of land as a basic part of education anymore? We don't! Our children and even 99% of adults in the U.S., a supposedly very well educated nation have no clue. "Oh, let the public utilities and the grocery stores worry about having enough supply to meet demand." That's really disturbing. Because it means people can't even make educated choices about something as basic as procreation. I think we should all be required to draw sustenance from growing on an area of land. There was a time when we each had a direct responsibility for ensuring adequate food, water, and shelter for our familys as a function of what we could directly obtain from the Earth, but now we've lost sight of that. It's all imaginary monetary units. We don't know the real consequences. Most of us don't even pay attenti