How lonely is enough?

Look around. Ironic isn't it. In the middle of the "Information Age" where we can see what's happening at West End London at the click of a button and order a pizza from around the corner at the same time we are more lonely than ever. We have the whole world at our finger tips but sink more and more into ourselves. Yeah, we could blame our parents but even that’s getting old. Yeah, they sold us a bunch of lies and told us to "get out there and be successful so you can come back and make your mother and I rich, I mean proud." but they were caught up in the same 90's Greed wave that everyone else was. They told us that as long as we made something of ourselves we would be happy. So, we tried. We went to college, started careers, and gave this whole adulthood thing a shot. What a mistake that was. Herds of late teens and 20 something’s released into the wild with not as much as a clue to what life's all about. Like sending a Smurf to walk the dog. We got out there and life ran us over. Some of us still have the tread marks. They sent us out to become someone but never bothered to tell us that we just might need someone. Where was that class. "Welcome to "Other People 101" where you will discover that there are hundreds... thousands... hundreds of thousands of people all trying to do the same thing you’re doing. Get by!" Maybe if we had that class it wouldn't have taken us so long to notice. But we did notice didn't we.

With what might be the first generational awakening this country had seen since the long-haired hippes combined Jesus and LSD to come up with Christian Tie Dye (ever seen a Shofar and an acid trip at the same time); we woke up one day and said; "What a minute! Where is everyone else? I use to know people." Within a matter of years AOL was a thing you set your grandparents up on, Google could find EVERYTHING and the Net was the place to meet people. It was a brave new world. Everything would change. We were no longer following the footsteps of our "9 to 5" parental units but craving community. We were going to find like-minded people all over the place and change the world. No matter what your cause was, it was noble and huge. We were gonna take this world that had spent some much time building little kingdoms and connect them. What a plan! What a dream! So, what happened?

I'll tell you what happened; the more and more connected we got the more lonely we felt. The more profiles we filled out the more we had to squeeze who we were into little 7 question box's labeled "Tell Me About You." The more emails addresses, messenger ID's and social networking accounts we created the more we lost who we really were and adopted a new online us. The very device that was meant to bring us together simply helped to make us feel even more alienated than before. At least, before, in order to connect with others we had to actually leave our rent spaces with wood in places. Now, in the comfort and fakeness of my quiet, lonely, roommate shared apartment I can talk to anybody and be anybody I want. Here's a little tip for you. There is no such this as an "Online Community." It's a oxymoron. You're online. It's the Internet. Where all the men are women. All the women are men. And all the kids are FBI agents. We have more contacts / friends then the population of small European countries. Tom, obviously one of MySpace's most popular people, has 195677287 friends. I don't know about you but I had to count the number like I was in back at Larkdale Elementary School. Ten, Hundred, Thousand, Ten Thousand, Hundred Thousand, etc, etc, until I realized I could have just put the commas in a moved on. That's 195,677,287 friends. I wonder how many of them know he suffers from Severe Depression? Well, I don't know that for sure but neither do they. You see my point! I want to be known and not as the guy with all the computer friends. I want people to notice when I'm walking funny cause I hurt my left knee and ask me how I'm doing. I want there to be witnesses to my life and I want to witness someone else’s. Call me selfish but I want a relationship with more than my keyboard. (Nice keyboard, nice keyboard...)

Our mad dash for community has sent us all to our own homes, to login to our own computers to IM each other from across the street. (Tell me you haven't done it!) Something went wrong. I'm not sure what but whatever it was we have to fix it or our children will be born monitor tans and permanent carpal tunnel. The more "connected" we get the more lonely we become. I guess the real questions is... How lonely is enough?

But hey I could be wrong..

Nes