ON LONELINESS AND TECHNOLOGIES

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Communicating (New York: Harper One, 2013) ("Loneliness is the suffering of our time. Even if we're surrounded by others, we can feel very alone. We are lonely together. There's a vacuum inside us. It makes us feel uncomfortable, so we try to fill it up by connecting with other people. We believe that if we're able to connect, the feeling of loneliness will disappear." "Technology supplies us with many devices to help us stay connected. But even when we're connected, we continue to feel lonely. We check our e-mail, send text messages, and post updates several times a day. We want to share and receive. We might spend our whole day connecting but not reduce the loneliness we feel." "We all hunger for love, but we don't know how to generate love in order to feed ourselves with it. When we're empty, we use technology to try to dissipate the feeling of loneliness, but it doesn't work. We have the Internet, e-mail, video conferencing, texting and posting. apps, letters, and cell phones. We have everything. And yet it's not at all certain that we have improved our communication..." "We believe too much in the technologies of communication. Behind all these instruments we have the mind, the most fundamental instrument for communication. If our minds are blocked, there is no device that will make up for tour inability to communicate with ourselves or others." Id. at 13-14. As the Beatles sang, 'all the lonely people, where do they all come from?').