Why Do We Talk Less?
I can honestly tell that the comment made about me by my teacher friend, with whom I went to lunch and have been working with for around six months, is quite correct.
I really wanted to stay silent, as though I was fasting, while my buddies at the table were chatting about trivial matters.
I had little interest in the topics being discussed, and I had no desire to start a conversation. "Well, should I tell you what impression you're giving me right now?" the thought suddenly occurred to me. "If we put you in the middle of the table, you are someone who could dominate the conversation, but you don't seem to bother."
I said nothing in response to this observation, which was both complimentary and critical. This time, I mean a deliberate quietness to accept the possibility that this conclusion is accurate.
We are, after all, gregarious creatures who want communication. We need to be entertained by frequent social connection, even though the idea of being alone and alone with our thoughts scares us.
Participants in a study that corroborates this scenario were invited to spend fifteen minutes by themselves in a sound-insulated room. It is asked of them to pass it. Rather than spending time alone with their thoughts, many participants try to relax by shocking themselves with electric shocks.
I'm not sure if you can relate to this circumstance. When we attempt to conduct such an experiment with our own existence, even in our own homes, what kind of outcomes do you believe we will obtain? fifteen minutes a day in our lives. Can we become engrossed in our own thoughts and cut off from others?
Allow me to speculate. After a while, we presumably use our digital gadgets to look for social connection chances in order to pass the time when we're bored.
With whom should I at least text or speak? Which visual media platform—where I can converse at least in one direction—should I use? in order to spare myself the suffering of being by myself with my own thoughts.
One of the foremost experts on loneliness, John Cacioppo, disclosed a significant fact regarding our propensity to use digital gadgets as an escape from loneliness in his 2008 book Loneliness.
According to study, individuals who engage in the most online engagement are also those who experience the most levels of loneliness.
Conversely, those who experience the least amount of loneliness are also those who engage in online interaction the least. Put another way, the more alone we feel, the more we turn to technology to make us feel less alone.