The withdrawal from society
- Martyn Foster
- 19 hours ago
- 3 min read
Disengaged, disembodied, disaffected…
I know no one wants to be reading this shit all the time, as it can get quite depressing, but it occupies my mind a lot, and certainly more in the last 5-10 years. I try and rack my brain as to why or how we let this happen or created it or obliviously wandered into it – or if you’re of the persuasion, consciously exploited. My thoughts aren’t as clear and concise on this as they normally would be so, please bear with me as I explore a multitude of phenomena with social, cultural, economic, political and individual factors.
As in this week’s “Thoughtful Tuesday” where I revisited my article on why most people don’t stay with you throughout your life, I’m still seeing a lot of hardly anyone staying around long-term, if anything, it’s gotten worse in the four years since writing it. Now, however, what we’re seeing is an increase in people not even wanting to be around anyone. Exaggerating to make a point, if no one was staying around, now, no one even wants or desires to be around.
We see an increase in the solo or lonely life categories. For various reasons, people either don’t want to interact, don’t want to tolerate, can’t stand one another, don’t want to work at things, keep thinking they’re fine and it’s everyone else who is the problem…ergo, fuck people, rather than understand or change. Or, possibly, people are done with other people’s nonsense and just want to live in peace and quiet without the drama and unnecessary hostility and conflict we see today. The “I’d rather be with no one than the wrong people” crowd, who are fed up with always been told how wrong they are. People either fight or withdraw, and fighting takes a lot more energy.
As our lives become more and more technological, we’re almost perpetually online with no break from the virtual world. Social media, streaming services, video games, pornography…you name it. There’s no physical body in the virtual world, hence disembodied, no real, tangible physical place nor community – a one-to-many network (as opposed to one-to-one), out-of-synch free-for-all. This messes with how we’ve evolved as a species and part of the reason why even though we’re “connected”, the connection is shallow, poor and insufficient, and has contributed to levels of depression, anxiety and loneliness, amongst others.
“People are spending a lot more time defending and a lot less time exploring – there seems to be an increasing level of threats whereas the perception of opportunities has dwindled.”
I see this “why everyone stays at home and does nothing” trend happening – and sometimes alone. Sure, things are way more expensive now in this cost-of-living crisis and wages have not increased proportionately, but it’s beyond that. People are becoming more risk averse; the risk-free existence is both being pushed and pulled. The rise in safety culture, overprotection, restriction of freedoms combined with changing views, cost of living and using technology substituting socialising have led to less risk-taking behaviour. Now, a part of this is a good idea, and a part of this is a bad idea – I’m sure you can think of examples of both.
This isn’t optimal, this isn’t thriving, this isn’t living.
I’m deeply worried about how fragmented our attention is becoming. I’m hugely concerned at the masses of people withdrawing out of society and the factors that are contributing to that exodus. The disengaged, disembodied and disaffected nature of so many should be disconcerting to our communities and especially to our politicians, but also our industries. This disturbed society has come down with the sickness that can only be cured in the real world with other people synchronously.
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