Do Modern People Become Lonelier?
Although Chinese people have gradually become wealthy more or less due to the reform and opening-up policy, they have oftentimes been troubled by a lack of friends that they can take into their confidence. This observation manifests itself most vividly in a line cited from the movie. If You Are the One, that is, “I do not lack money but friends”. Ironically, in the cell phone contact list of an average person, the number of cell phone numbers may reach a couple of hundreds. One can not help wondering if modern people become lonelier than before. Personally, I hold the opinion that modern people do become lonelier than before.
Firstly, due to the urbanizing process at an unprecedented speed, the society becomes more mobile, for more and more people migrate from one city to another to seek fortune. Nowadays people in cities are consisted of migrate workers from rural areas, college graduates in pursuit of their dreams, businessmen across the country and the local. Given the fact that people from different regions have different subcultures, people tend to reject people with different backgrounds. Besides, as people are more interested in making money, they are more likely to conflict in interest. No wonder that circle of confidants has shrunk dramatically and the number of people with whom to discuss important matters has spirally increased.
Secondly, while people are able to benefit from the advancement of new technologies, they are likely to depend more upon technologies instead of friends. Communication technologies such as the Internet and phones let people stay in contact with other people who are from remote areas, and spend time on the phone and the Internet communications instead of dealing with people face to face. Network games have gained their popularity to such an extent that many spend most of their spare time in playing network games and hence they become apathetic to have a good time with friends face to face. That face time seems more likely to develop friendships.
As a result, the reduced face time would translate into a loose network between friends. In sum, urbanization has reduced the intimacy between human beings and makes them less likely to make friends than in the past and the advancement of modern technology also makes people more apathetic by reducing face-to-face contact with friends. I hope people can regain the intimacy between friends as before.