Are You Lacking Personal Interaction In Your Life?

When is the last time you felt that someone paid attention to you?  There is no mistaking that the world today is all about virtualized experiences - we life our lives through technology, and not people.  If you are like a growing number of people, you may feel this vital social need is missing from your life.

We all have a basic human need to interact with other people and to have people not only pay attention to us, but also to take our thoughts and ideas seriously.  When we feel we're isolated and alone, that nobody really knows who we are or believes in what we can do, we are more apt to feel depressed and isolated from the rest of the world. 

Since the beginning of time, human interaction has been one of the basic needs of every human.  We worked together, we lived together, and we hunted and gathered together.  Today, almost every aspect of our interactive lives is being rewritten as technology changes the way we live, work, shop and even play.

Take a look around you - even in your house.  When is the last time your family sat down to dinner together?  If you are like most families, the dinner table ritual has all but disappeared from your house.  The greatest social tool of the family has been usurped by parents busily working into the night and children who are addicted to video games and online activities.  Chances are that your children know more people on the computer than they do in real life.  Once they get home from school they jump straight on their computer or game console instead of going out and playing with friends or hanging out with other kids.

The workplace isn't immune from this trend of isolation and virtualization either.  Today, many companies are allowing employees to work from their homes.  Meeting and water cooler discussions are being eliminated and being replaced with video conferences and instant messaging.  Your coworkers may no longer reside down the hall, but thousands of miles away and you know them only by their e-mail address. 

Evidence of the lack of personal interaction is evident in the younger generation.  They're often deficient in the social skills many older adults have.  They feel uncomfortable in a crowded setting, and they may not talk except for short sentences and only when coerced.  Many of them are uncomfortable speaking in front of large groups of people - yet they can write volumes in their online blogs and post endless videos to sites like YouTube.

We all spend more time interacting with our email, our instant messages, our Blackberries, and our computers than we do with our own family.  We become isolated and unaware of what is going on around us.  Many also begin to feel that they aren't appreciated because they aren't getting positive feedback that comes with social interaction.  We begin to think they have to work harder to gain respect and appreciation - feeding into the cycle itself.

Many agree that this failure to meet the basic human need for social interaction will be one of the greatest mental health problems of the future.  As more communications happen virtually, we lose the close personal relationships that we once cherished.  We no longer have a close friend we can confide in or a social network we can bounce ideas off of.  Instead, we live our lives in a virtual world.  When we come out of it to face reality we may feel that nobody understands our feelings or what we are going through.

Are you feeling the need for more personal interaction?  Chances are that you are - and so is the rest of your family. 

There is a way to stop this madness cycle.  Turn off the digital devices, the virtual networks, and the technological overload and start interacting with others.  Bring back the tradition of having the family get together at dinner and make it a point to schedule a family outing every weekend.  Pick up your phone and call a friend to chat or meet for coffee.  Attend a live, in-person workshop or seminar. 

It's not too late to start regenerating those feelings you used to have when you interacted with others - and they with you.  As with anything, it takes effort to make happen, but the reward for doing so could be a brighter future for you and your family.