With all the advancement in technology, we can go to the internet and order almost anything to be delivered to our home…except a friend. In our highly connected world, why do we often feel so disconnected?
A Cigna study of 20,000 adults in 2018 found that half of Americans felt alone or always alone, and those who were 18-22 felt far more lonely (48.3%) than people over the age of 72 (38.6%). It’s been a matter of chance to meet a potential friend and even more effort to keep a friend and deepen the relationship. But, based on the statistics and the loneliness gap between older people and younger people, it appears that it is getting even harder.
Part of it could be attributed to technology advancements that allow us to connect to more and more people digitally, but less and less on a personal face-to-face level. The odds are against us if the trend continues. The already challenging task of developing friendships and deepening those bonds will get more daunting as the world becomes more digital. And, because of lifestyle changes due to the pandemic, people are realizing that they hardly need to leave their computer screen to get most things done, and some of that will never go back to face-to-face interactions.
Unfortunately, technology will likely never advance to the point of solving the problem that it partially created. Seldom do I say “never”, but in this case, here goes…technology will never advance to the point where you will be able to simply order an ideal friend via the internet to be delivered to your home.
So, what do we do? Maybe we need to think about this in a different way. Perhaps there’s a happy medium where science and technology can help us understand what our ideal friend looks like and then connect us to those people to increase the odds of making meaningful life connections? The hard work will still be up to us to individually nurture and grow those relationships the old-fashioned way but introducing two potential friends to each other is at least a step in the right direction. Research is already under way to figure out how to do just that at the Research Center for the Science of Connection (RCSC), whose sole purpose is to help connect humans. If you want to help with research efforts, take the friendship assessment now.
— Mike, Xyla Founding Team