Michael Karnjanaprakorn

Over the past couple of days, I’ve been looking into the increasing trend of social isolation.  With technology, social networks, iPhone, twitter – why do people feel more isolated?  Here’s an excerpt from a Washington Post article that explains:

Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States.

“That image of people on roofs after Katrina resonates with me, because those people did not know someone with a car,” said Lynn Smith-Lovin, a Duke University sociologist who helped conduct the study. “There really is less of a safety net of close friends and confidants.”

A quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two.

“The current structure of workplace regulations assumes everyone works from 9 to 5, five days a week,” Putnam said. “If we gave people much more flexibility in their work life, they would use that time to spend more time with their aging mom or best friend.“

Feel free to download the research paper here.  How is this possible?  “This would suggest that in the same 20 years that saw the rise and triumph of communication technologies—the proliferation of email, cell phones, BlackBerries, and MySpace—our circle of close friends and confidants has shrunk by a significant margin. We are somehow more connected than we once were, and more isolated than ever before.” Here are some of my quick thoughts:

1. Social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace connect us to people that we already know.  They don’t facilitate new relationships and connections as it’s almost impossible to add someone you don’t know.  The social norm of social networking states that you can only connect to people you already know.  I have over a 1,000 friends on facebook and I probably know 99% of them.  But, out of those 1,000, I stay in touch with around 25 and keep updated with the rest through status updates.  Yes, I know.  Sad.
2. The old economic theory between work and leisure hours still holds true.  The more we work, the less time we spend on leisure. Pretty basic.  But that’s why concepts like ROWE and the 4-hour work week are so vital.  Why are we still working a 9-5 model that was based around the factory industrial age?  We need to change the way that we work which will in turn increase productivity and happiness.  There’s a reason that Denmark is the happiest country in the world.  At the end of the day, we’ll have more time to spend with friends and meeting new people.
3. Sites that utilize online technology to facilitate offline interactions will be the new wave of the future.  Sites like meetup, yelp, and couchsurfing will replace social networking sites.  It doesn’t matter how many people you know but the quality of those relationships.  And you only gain those relationships through real interactions.

One of the reasons that people are becoming more isolated is because they aren’t forging genuine and authentic connections to other people.  I read an article on GOOD Magazine that dug a little deeper about CouchSurfing:

CouchSurfing allows its users to find one another online in order to meet and host each other offline. That alone is something of a radical concept (it’s easy to imagine the collective panic of loved ones everywhere: “You’re going to stay with strangers?”). But there is a deeper purpose behind the site, says Fenton. Fenton calls himself, only half in jest, a scientist of human connection. His mission is to transform people’s lives. “We want to create memorable, intense experiences,” he says, “to put the right people together in the right situation at the right time. This isn’t just about a place to crash.“

CouchSurfing isn’t an online social networking site; it’s an offline network connector.  The value of a strong network is so vital.  Look at KIVA.  They have a 99% repayment rate from developing entrepreneurs.  If the majority of entrepreneurial ventures fail, how is KIVA getting such a high repayment rate?  It’s because you’re funding the network around the entrepreneur and not the entrepreneur himself.  Each person in the network wants to see the entrepreneur succeed and since they are all connected (i.e. bank loans to farmer who sells food to market who sells to consumer).  Everyone want to see the farmer succeed.

And while we’re talking about the value of network, here’s an interesting quote I came across:

Networking is not only for finding jobs or clients. In an economy dominated by ideas and innovation, networking creates the channel through which ideas flow and in which new ideas are created. A large network, carefully cultivated, ties one into not just a body of people but a body of relationships, and those relationships are more than just the sum of their parts. The interactions those relationships make possible give rise to innovation and creativity – and provide the support to nurture new ideas until they can be realized.

In conclusion, to battle social isolation, we need to stop connecting to each other online, work less, and couchsurf.  Yeah, that would be the life.