Online Loneliness

Have you ever been in a room filled with young people engrossed in their electronic devices?  Have you noticed how oblivious they are of one another as they play their computer games or send messages to absent friends?  This fact of modern life has, however, had dire consequences.

The Internet is, in many ways, a boon.  But it has also been a curse.  One of its worst side effects has been the coarsening, and degradation, of interpersonal communications.  Many of us are familiar with how mean tweets can be.  We have also witnessed the shallowness of FaceBook.

What we may not have realized is how seriously the electronic media eroded interpersonal skills.  Millions of computer addicts use their machines as a buffer against the world.  Because they can control what they see and hear, they are able to exclude unwanted contacts.

As a result, they never acquire the ability to deal with unpleasant messages.  Nor do they become skilled in coping with strong emotions.  For that matter, most are inexperienced in reading the subtle cues on the faces of the folks with whom they might have direct interactions.

This leaves many of the young unprepared to deal with the give and take of their subsequent occupations.  They have difficulty evaluating personal character or standing up to vigorous competition.  This is one of the reasons large numbers of college students cannot endure what they find offensive.

Indeed, it is why a college education is not worth what it once was.  Unhappily, college administrators are conspiring to convert a bad situation into an unprecedented disaster.  They are eagerly expanding their online offerings, irrespective of the consequences.

You’ve seen it on TV.  You’ve been told a thousand times about how convenient distance learning is.  The impression you are given is that this modality is superior to the old-fashioned classroom.  Nonetheless, this is a grave error.

First, a caveat.  I do not teach online.  But I do teach at a university (KSU) that boasts of many online offerings.  I also teach in a department that offers a fully online degree.  I have even helped edit a journal issue dedicated to exploring the realities of online programs.

What is more, I frequently quiz my students about their online experiences.  The better ones almost uniformly assert that these are an inferior form of learning.  They tell me that what they absorbed was cursory and that cheating is rampant.

What they typically neglect to say is that college is about more than books and examinations.  It also entails interacting with other students.  In fact, the informal contacts that begin in class or arise from extracurricular activities are often more influential than the dealings with their professors.

This was certainly the case when I was an undergraduate.  My friends and I routinely discussed the ideas to which we were exposed.  Actually “discussed” is the wrong word.  Oftentimes we argued, and in the process made novel ways of thinking our own.

Even Plato wrote about the way the young tussle over philosophies; much as puppies do over a bone.  Are we now intent upon depriving learners of this opportunity by confining them to the solitude of their home screens?   Is their world to be restricted to a computer display in the name of efficiency or modernity?

To be honest, online designers are aware of this pitfall.  They therefore attempt to compensate in a variety of ways.  One is to make graphics more stimulating.  Another is to encourage instructors to create videos that emulate the classroom.

But the most important substitute for interpersonal connections are the chat room or electronic discussion board.  These are often made mandatory in the expectation that they will stimulate student thought.

Too bad this is a vain hope.  The stilted, and coerced, nature of these exchanges is no replacement for the real thing.  In their artificiality, they cannot reproduce the spontaneity of face-to-face conversations.  They thus cannot inspire the momentary flashes of insight that develop out of emotionally laden contacts.

Internet learning is improving.  It may even be useful in teaching math and accounting.  But when the humanities and social sciences are stripped of their human component, they cease preparing the young for social realities.  This sort of enforced loneliness only creates isolated clones.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University