Social Disruption

January 20, 2026

It’s hard to have any kind of social relationship nowadays. With a real human that is. And I too, am partly to blame. At least in this little sphere of influence called my life. This morning, I was sitting at the breakfast table for like the millionth day in a row with 2 people glued to their iPhones.  Yes, I had mine with me too. I wouldn’t want to be left out.  But even when it’s just my wife and me, I still compete with an iPhone for her attention. A contest that I rarely win.

Now, I feel blessed to be sitting at the breakfast table with my family.  That’s a really good thing these days.  But for me, it is a bit of a frustrating, somewhat non-social event. Especially when everyone is busy with their phones playing Wordle, listening to cat noises, watching videos of people falling off ladders or looking up how many moons orbit Uranus. Rarely are we speaking to one another. 

If I ask a question, I get an annoyed glance like I just broke a vow of silence in a Trappist monastery. Often, I might get no acknowledgment at all, because they haven’t heard me, being so absorbed in ridiculous things like watching people posing in swimwear in a snowstorm, or guinea pigs popcorning, or quite possibly, listening to a selection of horse farts. So, what I am pondering today is the influence that electronic devices and social media have had on our actual “social” lives. Because it can’t just be me that is concerned about this.

I try to remember what the act of being “social” actually is.  In my day, social meant enjoying the company of other people.  Wow! What a concept. It was also the process of engaging in human interaction, like banter or small talk.  Or discussing heady things like the weather.  Back in the day we all thrived through companionship, rather than isolation, and found satisfaction in being close together.  Talking, smiling, touching, laughing… together! 

Now, we live in a world of electronic escapism. We don’t have to listen to a real three-dimensional person. We don’t have to think and respond to questions. We prefer to be mildly amused. Marginally entertained by mindlessly superfluous reels of oddities that are mostly AI.  So, they are not even real reels.  I mean, maybe they are, but maybe they aren’t.  Do we even know?  Does it even matter?  We get so lost in the stuff it becomes reality, regardless of its source.     

I am a Trekkie.  So, I have way too many reference points derived from within the entire Star Trek catalog.  There is one episode in Star Trek: The Next Generation titled "The Game”. It aired in 1991, well before the internet became a big deal or any search engine had been fired up.  Some of us had cell phones then, but they were still just phones.  They weren’t all that smart yet. 

In this particular episode, the crew of the starship Enterprise becomes engrossed in a mind-controlling, virtual reality device that was a part of an alien plot to infiltrate Starfleet. The mechanism was a headset device that projected a simple, visual game that directly impacted the brain's pleasure centers, creating intense addiction. Literally incapacitating the crew and making them easily manipulated.   Sound familiar? Even if you didn’t see the episode, you must see similarities to what the world is like now. Maybe only subtly, but certainly.

Now I am not a conspiracy theorist at all, but a fact is a fact.  We are being overly influenced by our electronic devices.  The impact? We are forgetting how to talk to one another and how important it is to do so. “You talk too much”, I get told. Guilty as charged. Because I still remember how to tell a story, how to talk about my feelings and I can still have a dialog not interrupted by a google fact check. One where I am just talking and listening. And no, texting does not count!  Physically being together, in the same place, to actually deal with the uncomfortable nature of interacting.  Because yes, it is awkward sometimes.  It always was.  It’s even more so now because we are all out of practice.   

It's no wonder the birth rate has dropped dramatically over the last 3  decades.  No one is having sex anymore.  People need to google now, to see how to do it. And it used to be a requirement to be together for sex.  Not anymore.  Back in the day, two people used to fool around just for fun. Not anymore.  Why would you need to, when you can get your kicks off the internet with a round of Sexting or cybersex. Or keep it even more impersonal by utilizing the plethora of porn that is available.  And that way, you don’t have to worry about someone’s feelings or God forbid, having to talk to each other after you’ve concluded the experience. Sexual pleasure and fulfillment now have completely new meanings.

I actually remember boredom, and not as a bad thing. By growing up pre-Google, I grew up bored.  For me, as well as most people in my generation, it was a signal to get up and actually do something. Or just being happy you had nothing better to do than be bored. It was called “chilling”, which was just relaxing. 

Boredom has mostly disappeared now, unless you’re incarcerated and in solitary confinement or, God forbid, somewhere without the internet.  When I was a kid boredom was a normal thing. If you wanted not to be bored, you did something.  Usually, it involved exercise and had a high potential for physical interaction with other people. There was no alternative. Even talking on the phone, which was a new thing then, gave us an opportunity to actually have a dialogue. Conversation is a lost art, just like boredom. 

But now, your phone offers us pseudo-socialization opportunities, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.  So endless, nonsocial entertainment lies literally at your fingertips. Or you can just shout out to Siri, or Alexa, or Google, or one of the many other AI interfaces to the cyber world.  They all make really good companions. And your friends Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, amongst a plethora of others, all offer loads of garbage for you to mindlessly consume.  Or you can choose Amazon and shop until you drop.  Your phone that is. Because you don’t even have to get out of bed to do the shopping.  Or nowadays you can even go to a casino, without even leaving your chair or talking to anyone.

It’s a real conundrum.  A challenge we must face down and figure out. Or “it” might just figure it out for us.  Whatever the case, I really hate it. I mean I love what the internet brings, I don’t know what I would do without it.  But can it coexist with love and affection and intrapersonal communication? Can I get a yay for an electronics free day?  Or week?  Or maybe just breakfast.