The age of intimacy famine: when we interact with our phones rather than our loved ones

By Dilip -

Like most humans, I want intimacy. But as a developmental psychologist, I consider intimacy a fundamental human need. Sharing feelings, embraces, intellectual conversations, sex – these intimate moments are often the touchstones of a rich human experience. Yet millions of people worldwide are isolated and lonely, woefully lacking in the meaningful and diverse social experiences that help support emotional and physical health.

Teens are spending most of their waking hours online, eschewing in-person gatherings for online chats, games and Netflix. And even those of us with socially rich networks sometimes long for flashes of intimacy, like hugs from friends or sex with lovers, amid the doldrum of our daily lives. As modern life has grown more distanced through technological innovation, our opportunities for deep, intimate moments have dwindled. The pandemic has only exacerbated this trend, prohibiting or impeding many types of friendly and professional touch and sending many of us deeper into our online worlds.

This has left many of us starving. We’ve entered an intimacy famine….

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jan/31/age-of-intimacy-famine-interact-with-phones-rather-than-loved-ones


Walter Benjamin: Capitalism as Religion (1921)


Tanya Gold - How materialism makes us sad


STANISLAV MARKELOV - Patriotism as a diagnosis


Beginnings and Endings


Colloquium: The Disappearing Present: Reflections on Ideology - October 16, 2020


David Foster Wallace - This Is Water


Alexandre Koyré The Political Function of the Modern Lie


Farewell to reality


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A pre-history of post-truth, East and West. By MARCI SHORE


Michiko Kakutani - The death of truth: how we gave up on facts and ended up with Trump


Farewell to reality - WHY WE’RE POST-FACT by Peter Pomerantsev


Why can’t we agree on what’s true any more? By William Davies


Alexander Klein: The politics of logic


How capitalism created the post-truth society and brought about its own undoing 


Leon Fink - Socialized Love in the Face of Pandemic // Why the coronavirus could be the tipping point in reshaping the global economy


‘Sometimes angels do walk among us’: Teacher shares tale of stranger’s act of kindness


'Homage to Humanity'


Pravaasi - A Poem by Taapsee Pannu


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