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Lonely and stressed out thanks to politics and technology

Francisco Miraval

The current political situation in the United States and in many other countries and the increasing dependency on technology for us, humans, to communicate with other humans have led many adults in the United States to reach one of the highest levels of loneliness and stress ever detected in modern times.

That’s what to recent national surveys reveal. Of course, many of us don’t need the surveys to know we are indeed lonely and stressed out.

One of the studies was published by the American Psychological Association (APA). The survey says the “political climate” in the United States have created such a high level of anxiety and uncertainty about the future many people don’t know how to adapt to those changes. In fact, they feel overwhelmed and they live under constant stress.

The other report was published by Match.com, the well-known online dating site. The report says that the abundance of technology prevents, but it doesn’t facilitate, the interpersonal communications. For that reason, many people, mainly young people, feel lonely and frustrated. In fact, there is yet another survey saying that upwards of 90 percent of American adults feel they are alone or totally alone.

Going back to APA, its study says that people are at such a level of stress many people can’t function normally. And the stress is not caused by the usual factors, such as problems at work, lack of money or poor health, but it is caused by the recent presidential elections and the new “unprecedented” political situation.

In that new socio-political situation, we face, relationships with relatives, friends, and neighbors are “fractured”. In addition, people are frustrated because they can’t “offer financial stability or protections” for their families or loved ones.

At the same time, according to the Match.com survey of 5,500 single people all over the country, people of all ages, but Millennials (those under 35) in particular, have problems to connect with other people in spite of using technology to do it and perhaps precisely for that reason. Contrary to what John Naisbitt once suggested, hi-tech disconnects us from hi-touch.

In fact, technology seems to interfere with good relationships. People complain about other people using their phones during a date to talk with other person, or about negative comments on Facebook about their companions, or about feeling “too much pressure” to getting married as soon as possible.

It gets to the point that if a person uses Android and the other person iPhone, using different phones could be understood as an indication of incompatibility for that couple. So, fewer people can develop “genuine relationships” with others and people become isolated or, even worst, develop ephemeral relationships with strangers they met at a bar or a gym.

What should we do when we face loneliness or uncertainty? We can’t go back to the past and we can’t stay in the present. And the future hasn’t arrived yet. So, what we should do? Perhaps we need to find our true selves again before meetings others.

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