Sharing pictures and stories online are how we connect in this digital age. You can easily update your friends about what’s happening around you.
But, can you build “real human bonding” by sharing pictures and stories over the Internet?
Real human bonding runs deep, it’s an emotional connection. A connection you share with a true friend or a really close family member.
Social networks connect you, but those connections are digital and mostly never emotional, on a deeper level. Would you feel pained if a bunch of your social network friends unfollowed you? Their actions might sting, but most likely you’d recover, after a few days.
Why?
Simply because the connections are not true human bonds.
True human bonding happens when you share the noise in your head, share the narratives in your head.
Pictures and stories are how you want to be seen in this world. They’re how you want to project yourself to the world.
But the real you has lots of “imperfect” noises and narratives in your head. Noises and narratives you have every day but rarely share. Everyone has their own set and everyone’s noises and narratives are different. It’s your own inner self, that you rarely share.
That’s why, even though we have so many connections, loneliness and depression are at their highest.
How do you share the noises and the narratives?
It’s really simple.
With friends or family over coffee or dinner or while on a walk, real human bonds are built. Sharing noises and narratives isn’t possible on the digital medium. You have to be physically present, face-to-face, and communicate through words, expressions, emotions, and body language. Consider these questions:
- Who is your closest, dearest, deepest friend?
- Did that bonding happen over the Internet?
- How did you become close? How did you build that bond?
The answer to building real human bonding, lies right there in front of you, between those questions above.