Alone But Surrounded

The following statement really made me think:

Amanda Palmer: The Village People.

And I think I have to agree. I've never thought of it that way, but it's so true. I think I can safely say that each individual has their own worries, pains, dramas, etc. It is hard to deal with life sometimes. So being connecting to an endless amount of people has got to be overwhelming, to say the least.

We don't even think about it anymore, it's become a way of life, we didn't have time to stop and consider if we wanted it this way, or if we had a choice.

Would there be so many people suffering from mental health problems if it wasn't such "a small world"? I have major stress just from connection with my immediate family, let alone friends, hundreds of acquaintances, hundreds more passers-by, and hundreds and hundreds more faces, opinions, voices on the internet.

But not once did I consider this to have a thing to do with the state of my mental health.

Would things be as depressing if there weren't so many people alive? If cars hadn't been invented, leaving us stuck in our own little few miles of the world? Who knows.

I do think that there wouldn't be as much of a problem if people had been more conscious of the changes. But we really weren't, we just watched it all happen and integrated it all into our lives without too much thought.

The world has grown so big: most people don't live a simple life anymore... we've lost touch with a lot of things that made us feel real connection. When something as vital as that is missing, who wouldn't get depressed/anxious, etc.?

Families don't stay together... they move all over the world and rarely see each other. People seem to enjoy text messaging instead of having a face-to-face conversation. Everyone has become distrustful of everyone else. Yada yada yada we all know what's wrong with the world so I'll stop there.

Can we blame it on over-population? Technology? And what is the solution?

Good questions. Any thoughts?

I guess being conscious of it is a good first step. All I know is it seems the more people we have, the more pretty pills are invented. People are becoming the disease.

I think a lot of the technology has been a good thing: because of phones, vehicles, and internet, more people can stay in touch - no need to feel so lonely with all that possibility of connection. But there's always another side to the coin: too much connection is just as bad as too much anything I would think - too little or too much of anything can have bad consequences. And a lot of the connection going on is not true connection, just niceties in the guise of connection.

We are over-populated and lonely as hell. Oddly enough, it is a choice. Everything is a choice. Even waking up to it is a choice.

Now I shall go away and ponder how all of this effects me personally, and see if I can't make my own mental health just a little bit better.

I leave you with this video to chew on:





-Love Marylin.