The Ecosocial Report on quality of life in Spain assures that “the role of the social bond is being replaced by the technological connection”. And he emphasizes: “Connectivity is not the same as bonding”. An important point that should not be lost sight of in a society where, according to the latest research, the average person spends seven and a half hours in front of a screen, not in front of other human beings. So that no one gets lost, seven and a half hours is “half of the waking day”, as the study done by the FUHEM foundation rightly says.
In addition to the time we spend alone in front of screens, the report highlights that there are other factors that are promoting a change in social relationships. One of which is the fact that public spaces are in danger of extinction: “The social conditions, spaces and infrastructures that favored meeting are disappearing”. And in fact we live in a world in which it is increasingly complicated to have interactions with other people.
We prefer the private car to public transport, we put on our headphones as soon as we leave the house, we can’t bear to go by subway or bus if we don’t have a screen to entertain us on the way…
Given this, the report is right when it says what Eric Klinenberg maintains in his book Palacios del pueblo. And in fact “societies base their existence on meeting spaces, such as public libraries, parks, squares, bars and neighborhood shops or churches, spaces where we interact and establish crucial connections. When we have these infrastructures is when our lives become more profitable, healthier and safer”.
However, society is increasingly adapted to a way of life based on individualism. This same study points out that even the infrastructures, the urban model and the types of housing, can be described as anti-social. “Closed and guarded urbanizations or homes designed inwards, obsessed with protecting property and privacy”.
These are some of the factors that, as evidenced by the study, “far from favoring the spontaneous encounter actually prevent it, making it difficult for recurring interaction and participation in common projects that bring a community together”.
The individualism of Western society is destroying the collective structure and the sense of the social that has always guided our way of life. In addition, “the acceleration of social changes makes it difficult for us to connect with significant values ??that give meaning to existence”. This study confirms that “the various ways of disconnection are the result of the loss and erosion of social bonds”.
In addition to digital devices, the progressive disappearance of public spaces and closed infrastructures, another issue that is affecting the way we relate to each other is the consumer society, which contributes to the fragility of social bonds.
The report states that, accustomed to throwing away or replacing any object that no longer lives up to our expectations, we have ended up doing the same with people: “The empire of the ephemeral in the sphere of consumption it sets up a plot of unstable relationships marked by fragility and incessant renewal”.
A consequence, on the other hand, of the digital world in which we move and which has made us confuse connectivity with bonding in social relationships.
