How will we overcome the ‘Loneliness Pandemic’?
Again the phone rings; I ignore it even though I am alone in the room. A relief comes when the phone ringing ends. Thirty seconds later it rings again. I mute it, on the one hand, I am holding the book I am reading and I reread the last paragraph three times because my phone is still vibrating. I don’t know why I ran away from the caller? I haven’t checked who’s calling yet, since it’s video calling, but it must be one of my family or closest friends.
“I found something called loneliness. And it never ends! “ -Omer Khayyam.
I am the transition generation from pay phones to mobile phone and computer video chat access. From the days when we mastered how to speak in the most economical way by trying to pull out the glass door that could not prevent the street noise in the middle of the street with credit or coins from the post office, to the days we could see people’s faces on the screen with a touch to share a special moment or when we are bored at home.
Well, of course, how would we see our grandmothers’ eyes that we haven’t seen / could not see for years, our newborn nephew, our cousin’s wife whom we couldn’t attend her wedding?
Oh loneliness! Have you become friends with technology? The more you rule our lives, the more lonely we become. Odorless, tasteless, two-dimensional relationships spiral around us at a high speed. Let’s say that the vaccines were found, the virus was mutated and lost its effect, let’s say ‘the New World Order’ers reached their goals. ‘How will we beat the Loneliness Pandemic? The Rulers have taken extraordinary measures; stuffed billions into houses -if they have one- and promoted the ridiculous labels like ‘Social Distance’. If you really care about people, order everyone who are melting in loneliness, shrinking, getting poor to pour into the streets, touch each other, feel, chat, share their memories even if it is absurd, get a cheap bottle of wine, enjoy drinking together, fill the event halls. Fund billions of dollars for festivals, weddings, street performances, those who lost their jobs and left their homes, divorced, hungry. Let the long, tiring business travels begin again, meet face to face, shake hands at the hosting company’s office, go to the bars after work, and the events happen again at nightclubs on weekends. Let the elders keep their grandchildren’s hands on the way to the mosque on Friday and keep them next to their knees, not two meters away. Why are we concerned about the invasion of robots, evolution continues at full speed, the human being who becomes callous becomes the robot itself. Some of us do not even notice our loneliness, we are happy with the phones in our hands, we think the world is spiing on our palms.
