[Dalewyn]

>In our modern societies we have more means of communication than ever, yet we’re also more lonely than ever before.

I really wonder if most people are just worthlessly incompetent at forms of communication other than face-to-face interactions.

The narrative is that the covid lockdowns made people more socially isolated, and to some extent I don't disagree, but the narrative goes on to paint an image of "noone to see or talk to, lonely, might die, help" which in this day and age is simply not (or at least shouldn't be) possible.

A video call is literally only a Skype or a Discord away. Talking to someone is literally just a phone call away. Fucking social media swamps you in the presence of others.

I admit that it probably helped that I hate dealing with humans in the flesh anyway, but I felt no lessening in my ability to socialize because my communications and interactions by and large weren't disrupted.

The "we are more disconnected the more connected we become" narrative can go die on a rusty spork.

[ativzzz]

> I really wonder if most people are just worthlessly incompetent at forms of communication other than face-to-face interactions.

I think a large number of people are worthlessly incompetent at communicating effectively period. Face-to-face is what most humans are good at, so if you are bad at that, you will usually be even worse at other forms

[barganzo]

> A video call is literally only a Skype or a Discord away. Talking to someone is literally just a phone call away.

Literally zero of my Discord contacts would ever respond to a video call let alone a voice call let alone an invite to a common voice chat. Nobody uses Skype anymore. I don’t know what age group you’re in, but it sure sounds like the “happy go lucky, internet has only ever been socially profitable for me” 35-50 yo range.

> Fucking social media swamps you in the presence of others.

Fucking social media swamps you in the “impression” you are in the presence of others while leaving you in a tiny little jail cell where you can’t interact with any of the pretty pictures hurrying across the barred window of your cell.

[williamtrask]

As someone who was homeschooled, loves being fully remote, and has worked as such for several years (and pined for it long before) I don’t think we can yet equate video chats with real conversation.

Conversation isn’t a data transfer. It’s a joint function of two people. Anything other than the real thing is messing with that function in weird ways.