3 Ways to Avoid Social Distance in the Age of Technology

The estimated reading time for this post is 7 minutes

If you are reading this article during the Coronavirus pandemic, please do practice social distancing to help stop the spread of the virus. Other Wonder of Tech articles to check out that may help you with social distancing during the Coronavirus pandemic include:

• 12 Ways Tech Can Help with Social Distancing
• Google Launches New Coronavirus/COVID-19 Resources

When you #StayAtHome you are helping to #FlattenTheCuve. Each person choosing to stay at home is potentially preventing the infection of thousands. Here’s why! 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻#healthNerds pic.twitter.com/NEe8THTrWl

— 𝐊𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐦 𝐓𝐚𝐲 𝐌.𝐃. (@kboudargham) March 22, 2020

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The Wonder of Tech is honored to have Aileen Brent as a guest author today sharing with us her tips on how to stay engaged in the real world in the Age of Technology.

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Technology is a double-edged sword, it can both help and harm. With the proliferation of electronic devices, connectivity, and social media, people stay connected all the time on all their devices. The Age of Technology is a world built on the back of science over the last 3-4 decades.

We are at a unique juncture societally – although we have lots of friends and interests in the virtual world, no one might worry over us in the real world if we don’t show up for a week. We may listen to Samuel L. Jackson’s voice on our devices, but we might hesitate to go catch his film with a friend because it involves going out in the real world.

Such social distance might lead to a disconnection from the real world, leading to intense loneliness and eventual depression.

On the other hand, people who are in a long-distance relationship might actually watch a movie on their own devices simultaneously, to simulate watching it together – like on a date night. Simply put, technology can be both bane and boon.

Why should social distance bother us?

Go through a psychology textbook and you’ll see an emphasis on having friends and relationships. Intermingling between real people n the real world contributes to increased empathy and mindfulness. Social connections in the real world reduce prejudices and help people see each other as regular folks instead of seeing them as a representation of a group to be feared, disliked or even overtly admired.

Social distance has been defined and studied for decades. The result of widening social distance is neither good for an individual nor society at large. It creates gaps, which can divide society and weaken it. Fractured societies are never peaceful; people tend to forget that they are first and foremost human beings. All other identities follow later.

On a lighter note, like the heroine of the movie discovers in the thriller from the 90s, The Net, living only in the virtual world might actually make it very hard to prove your real-world existence!

Although technology such as televisions, phones, mobile devices have done us great service, they have also created individual spaces where people exist with little or no contact with people who may be right next to them, physically that is.

Such people might build lives in the virtual world which have no basis in their reality. In some ways, such a world can help people grow beyond the constraints of the every day, but then it also raises ethical questions – is it right to mislead others about who you really are?

Not only have tech devices increased social distance between people in societies and even people within a family, but they have also opened up a world of questions about identity, reality, exercising choice, individuality, etc.

Practices to avoid social distance

Researchers and experts have simple solutions to reduce social distance. These are lifestyle changes to be made within families, groups, and classes of people. Most are based on good old common sense and are recommended for general well-being.

Three practices to avoid social distance:

1. Spend time in nature
Human beings are as much a part of nature as any little insect on Earth. Even if you enjoy certain activities alone, there’s something about nature that helps people understand the interconnectedness of life.

Such activities help people understand the vastness of the world and how we are dependent on nature. Tech is for us to use to enjoy this beautiful world to the fullest.

Try these activities:

• good old walking
• gardening
• chatting in the sun
• just enjoying the shade of a large tree
• forest bathing
• taking the kids/dogs/seniors out on a hike
• swimming in the outdoors
• staring at the stars/flowers
• walking along a river
• fishing

2. Participate in the community around you

Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.”

— Aristotle, Politics

I guess most of us are neither beast nor god, making us social animals. It is precisely because we behaved like a society, that had each other’s back, that we have evolved and survived for millennia.

• So step away from your device into the real world.
• Look around you.
• Spot the beautiful bits.
• Learn to cope with the not-so-beautiful bits.
• Make friends in the neighborhood.
• Lend someone a hand.
• Try to stop a bully.
• Stand up for someone.
• Help someone with a skill you have.
• Have a considerate word for someone who helped you.
• Strike up a friendship for it can go a long way in making you feel needed.
• Be open to real touch and feel romantic love.
• Be mindful of others for it heightens your awareness.
• Enjoy the Sun, for it is the source of all our energy. Yes, we have seen enough end-of-the-world movies to understand that it is so.
• Look at the ease with which the young among all creatures befriend others. Yes, there is a reason why puppy and baby videos go viral.
• Research has shown over and over again that relationships sustain us through our worst. Keep us healthy. Sharpen our senses. Help us enjoy life to its fullest.

3. Develop real-world interests

Although tech is woven into our everyday lives in many ways, the world still runs exactly how it has run for millennia, at the core of it. We don’t understand the intricacies of weather, self-repair in living creatures, how life sparks; in fact, this applies to most of life’s little secrets on this planet.

There is much to wonder about and learn. We need air, food, and water for our sustenance. We still have primeval fight-or-flight responses to situations. We still fight over land, people, wealth and relationships. Nature can still ravage us with her storms, fires, floods, and droughts.

We must understand (and emphasize to our young) that tech is a tool to better our lives, not make it our life. The printing press was tech which revolutionized many things in our world; one of the most important being cheap dissemination of information. We enjoyed the characters we read and wrote about, we did not all live those lives.

We needed and still need real-world interests. Interests, however mundane, keep us rooted in reality and creatively so. Over millennia we have made bread and soup, but we still experiment with both. Even today a beautifully woven carpet can grab our attention.

The world of music might have changed, but we still make and move to great rhythms. Building beautiful things has made a comeback in maker spaces. A farmer’s life may not have been considered an exciting lifestyle, but now many people love to grow stuff, photograph it, share it, cook it, and even teach others how to.

Wrapping up

Simple commonsensical suggestions, but these will go a long way in reducing social distances. As the tech component in our lives increases, we need to build lifestyles that will help us stay in touch with our humanness.

Stop reading. Switch off your device. It’s time to go out into the great outdoors. And don’t forget to greet your neighbor.

Your Thoughts

Do you need reminders to turn off your tech and avoid social distance? Do you have any suggestions for ways to avoid social distance? What have you done lately to engage in the real world away from tech?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!

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Author Bio:

Aileen enjoys blogging about STEM, as it’s an extension about the world around us, our home for millennia. She likes the fact that she is a part of the hum of life, something that she likes exploring and knowing better.

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*Tech at Sunset image (edited) courtesy of Jonathan Pendleton via Unsplash and Creative Commons

**Ignoring Each Other image courtesy of Michael Coghlan vis Wikimedia and Creative Commons

***Women with Dog image courtesy of Ross Sokolovski via Unsplash and Creative Commons

****Hiking image courtesy of Michael Bass-Deschenes vis Wikimedia and Creative Commons