By Chibogu Obinwa
With technology evolution which is moving at a very fast pace that most find it difficult to catch up even, we are developing into a society of virtual community rather than real community.
We are fast approaching an era where people won’t mind making babies virtually if it becomes possible. We are all lost in our tiny gadgets and hardly stop to notice our loved ones who might just need a real hug for a sec in order to get through the day. We sit at lunch or dinner tables and 80% of the time is spent catching up on work related emails or social media, while the remaining 20% is shared between the menu and real conversation.
Now with the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the dearth of ‘real community’ has even further deepened, as the virtual space became an unavoidable necessity.
We are losing real community.
While it is awesome that we can just click on our phones and get a million things achieved (most of which would never have been possible before the advent of technology), there is no doubt that something equally crucial to our existence gave in – ‘real community’ and ‘real communication’. These two will definitely go a long way in addressing cases of depression.
Secondly -is it my imagination or do we seem to have a higher suicide rate amongst men? The stats will be confirmed or debunked in a bit. But, if that is the case, the reasons are quite obvious. We live in a society that gives men less ‘permission’ to be human than it gives to women. Our patriarchal society is socially designed to limit the extent to which men can express themselves emotionally or seek psycho therapy (whether informally or formally). So they bottle up so much and might end up addressing it the only way they feel they will elude societal judgment. Think about this. We need to give men the permission to be human too.
Calling your friend up in the middle of the night to weep buckets over a troubling issue, or seeking any other form of emotional therapy is not a ‘weakness’ by any means, it is called being humanly strategic and the person oftentimes emerges stronger.
Finally, we need to generally learn to be less judgmental as a society and embrace the principles of empathy and solidarity support. We all will need it at one time or the other as we wade through the turbulent waves that come inbetween the calm moments.