08.11.2025
S: You know, one of my favourite authors, their parents met on the train.
A: An interestingly irrelevant fact.
S: But it is relevant. When was the last time you had even a conversation with a stranger on the train?
A: The point being?
S: Have you ever noticed how a train is laid out? The space is actually maximised so that you are facing someone. So why is it that people do not talk to others on the train? If the space is conducive to something, why is it not happening?
A: What are you trying to get at?
S: Slowly. I’ll get there. Let’s look at mobile phones and social media. All of those sites, theoretically, they are built to connect people, aren’t they? Yet, all they do is create the feeling of isolation, desolation even. Loneliness is an epidemic in our society due largely to social media. It causes jealousy, withdrawal, cyberbullying. I could go on with this list. Yet all those sites and the mobile phone itself were built to connect people. For the good of society.
A: I’m beginning to get what you’re saying.
S: Finally, let’s talk about the open plan office space or staff room. It has been built to increase connection. So that people will talk to each other. Benches in the park. But if one person sits somewhere, other people won’t sit there and talk to them. They sit by themselves. They don’t talk. The whole point of how it is built is defeated.
A: What is your conclusion about all of this?
S: It is not the spaces. It is not the inventions. It is not the communication media. It is the people that refuse to connect themselves to anyone. They want to be alone. They are blaming technology for loneliness and isolation, the spaces in society. It is them that do not want to connect. They always find an excuse not to. They have been seduced by the evils of individualism. The Western individual.
A: The thesis is interesting. But have you considered that there is a failure in the technology?
S: Yes. And that is also revealing. Because the social media sites only connect in that they control. It is a system of control that is keeping individualism alive. It is an artificial way of life imposed by the elites in this society. Not a fault but a deliberate strategy. The etiquette on the train: imposed by the elites. So that all classes of society will not mix, people from different backgrounds…
A: The night has come. Sleep beckons. Another day, another thought.
diary of a lone man 