Survey after survey has revealed that many members in our society suffer from loneliness day in, day out. How have we reached this state?

I would like to share a quote from the book Loneliness by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick, which I feel reveals one main reason for the loneliness of our society – people have stopped relating to each other face to face.

The quote goes like this:“I remember the year eye contact stopped. It was not some big demographic shift. People just seemed to give up on relating to each other. Now this town is one of the loneliest places on earth. People are vaguely paranoid, oversensitive and self-involved. Incomes are high, the cost of living is astronomical, but everybody is in debt, living in million-dollar homes and eating take-out pizza. And when the divorce comes, the guy moves out of the house to live on his boat.”

Now, doesn’t this sound vaguely familiar? Could we perhaps restart human contact? Could we reintroduce the simple act of making eye contact with the people we pass on the road and just say bonġu or bonswa?