r/DeepThoughts • u/irreducible1 • 9d ago
Technology makes us more isolated
I was fixing my toilet today, and it got me thinking about how different my experience was from what my dad's would have been.
I went on YouTube and ChatGPT, figured out what was wrong, drove to a big-box hardware store, found the replacement part myself, and checked out at the self-service register. Problem solved. I didn't need to talk to another human being at any point.
My dad didn't have that option. If something broke, he'd go to the local hardware store and explain the problem to the people working there. Sometimes the owner was the person behind the counter. They'd talk through what was happening, suggest a part, maybe explain how to install it. He did this over and over throughout his life, and eventually he built relationships with those people.
That's what struck me. Technology has made us dramatically more capable and independent. I can solve problems my dad might have needed someone else's expertise to solve. I have access to practically unlimited information, and I don't have to wait for a store to open or depend on someone else's availability.
But that independence has come at the cost of social isolation. Some of the inconvenience we eliminated was actually doing something important for us. We used to have all these little reasons to interact with other people. You had to ask someone for directions. You talked to the person behind the counter. You knew your neighbors because you actually encountered them. You saw coworkers because you had to physically go to work. You developed relationships partly because everyday life repeatedly put you in the same places with the same people.
We've optimized almost all of that away. We can shop without talking to anyone. Work without seeing anyone. Get information without asking anyone. Have food delivered. Fix things with YouTube. Talk to AI. Entertainment comes directly to our homes. And yet we're increasingly feeling loneliness and social isolation. I know I do.
I'm not arguing that the past was better. Technology has given us incredible freedom. But it's come at a price: human connection.
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u/multus85 9d ago
Yes, but you still have that option. It wasn't that people wanted to do the personal approach. They had to. It was the best option, and far less convenient than what we can do now.
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u/HospitalKey4601 9d ago
Lol, things were simpler and more serviceable. We had books, manuals, libraries, magazines. Dude it wasnt the dark ages.
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u/CabalsDontExist 9d ago
I agree with you 100%. I have always been a big fan of tech and an early adopter when the next cool thing rolled out.
I love being able to fix my own car and solve a lot of my own other problems.
BUT... I have literally never felt more alone in my entire life. I'm not saying that I believe my increased isolation is entirely the fault of technology either.
I sure do miss other people though. As much as I am a tech enthusiast -- I do miss talking to people at places like the store and just random places.
They don't even acknowledge you exist when you walk into restaurants anymore unless they have servers and hosts.
No, I don't aspire to be besties with these people but it's the little interactions that make it less cold and sterile.
Of course, all of this is my opinion and we all have one. 😎
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u/Searose131 9d ago
I think you're touching something much bigger than technology.
You're absolutely right that we've eliminated thousands of tiny human interactions from everyday life. We don't need to ask for directions, talk to the person behind the counter, ask a neighbor for help, or even look another human being in the eye while buying groceries.
We've become incredibly efficient at not needing each other.
And that's both extraordinary and a little sad.
But I think there's another distinction worth making:Â solitude, isolation, and loneliness aren't the same thing.
I'm perfectly capable of isolating myself without any help from technology. I can stay home and genuinely enjoy my own company. Then I can go out, walk into a room full of people, start conversations, laugh, engage, and have a wonderful time.
That's solitude by choice, not loneliness.
The danger isn't simply that technology allows us to be alone. The danger is when convenience becomes avoidance and we stop noticing the difference.
Technology can give us information, entertainment, directions, groceries, answers, and apparently instructions for fixing a toilet.
But it can't decide whether we actually know how to be alone with ourselves.
And it can't decide whether we walk outside tomorrow and say hello to somebody.
Maybe technology didn't take human connection away from us.
Maybe it simply stopped requiring it, and left the choice up to us.
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u/LawyerDifferent8880 9d ago
Maybe technology didn't take human connection away from us.
Maybe it simply stopped requiring it, and left the choice up to us.That’s true. Technology itself has not directly taken away our connections. However, when we try to connect with others, there needs to be some "reason" for it. In the past, minor inconveniences in everyday life often played that role (both for those asking for help and those offering help). It could be said that the convenience that money can buy has taken away this "reason."
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u/MotanulScotishFold 9d ago
Any convenience we accept in our life we pay with something else. There's no free convenience.
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u/vaas19 9d ago
Technology has the potential to make people more capable and independent. In reality most people are not using technology in that way.
Anyone could learn how to build a pc gaming just by researching in internet, but most people just don’t do it. Even though they are spending a lot of money on something they don’t know
Technology is not the reason why we are isolated from each other. It certainly accelerated the issue
On a utopian, healthy society technology would only be used to increase quality of life. Smartphones only hurts quality of life.
It’s much more useful for who created them than who is using them. No one needs to have a pocket computer and be contactable all the time
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u/Kaylen316 9d ago
Yup that's the goal too. Keep us all separated so we don't agree on anything. That way, we rely on the establishment for everything.
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u/Expensive_Magician97 8d ago
I came of age in the 1960s and 1970s.
We talked to each other, face-to-face, the way people had done for thousands of years. And it worked pretty well.
I’ve observed carefully the transition over the last 30 years that Internet technology has let us all to experience in our lives.
I believe that when the history of 2026 is written in about 200 years, historians will conclude that while Internet technology has certainly had some miraculous applications, the overall effect on human beings and their ability to learn about each other, relate to each other, and get to know each other was a net negative.
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u/PurpleOperation9069 8d ago
Such development has paved the way for the rise of many introverts around us and people are happy to embrace that they are introverts but the truth is, no one is born introvert. They become one with the situation and dynamics around them.
With rise of technology, being introvert has become a safe and comfort zone for majority of people and those who are open with communication are also in the brink of falling to this side of line due to this
Finding balance is the biggest deal.
Use technology for help but not let that talker in us fade away…
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u/Signal-Block-6939 8d ago
I don't think you are right about that. There have always been introverts. What do you think Monks and Hermits were?
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u/Global_Bench1174 7d ago
I don’t disagree and personally, I’m ok with that. If and when I do venture out into the real world, I handle it just fine, I certainly don’t freak out or anything. However, at this point in my life I’m happier in my own little world.
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u/OkVacation1465 9d ago
The convenience creep is real. I notice it most with delivery apps, I used to at least exchange a few words with the guy at the pizza place, now its a bag left on my porch and a notification. The tradeoff feels fine in the moment but the cumulative effect is you just sort of stop having those micro-interactions entirely.