On the evolution of fear in modern man
Fear is the intrinsic characteristic of man, we all feel fear and is, although ironic, an essential characteristic for every human being, it is fear that has allowed us to survive as a species when we still lived in caverns, fear has marked the limits ofWhat we can do and what is not, fear is an alert, a reminder, a stigma of the very short time we have in this world, we are scheduled to feel fear. With this, it would be more than saying that any fear that triggers a series of adverse events or that, from a medical point of view, rub the pathological, that is, in some way, to cause an oversized biological response, will not help us inabsolute.
But when the restlessness rays excessive and, unintentionally, this is anticipated long before that fortuitous event occurs, without being able to know for sure if it will happen, we would be entering psychological disorders. Be that as it may, among all the collection of fears that man is exposed during his life, few – and I would dare to say that perhaps it is really the only one – they feel as abysmally distressing as the fear of loneliness. Modern times have brought with them forms of communication never thought before, our peers are as close as a click away, but all these advances in forms of communication do not seem impact on how humanity addresses its, sometimes necessary, necessary,loneliness. It is possible to ask ourselves then, if after having traveled that long, tortuous and, as we could have evidencePrimitive to death by a more sophisticated one, one more in line with modern times, one that supplants the need for the most horrified lucubrations of human imagination, who today have already witnessed many and many very numerous horrors. We have to ask ourselves like that is loneliness, now, the greatest fear of the human being?
If we start thinking critically, we would understand that loneliness is nothing more than a condition subject to specific time and space, that is, this would not mean nothing of not being the heartbreaking feeling of loneliness of which it is escorted. Without a doubt this opens the possibility to be alone goes further, it goes further, that is, it goes to the remote and extremely feeling loneliness even when one is surrounded by a multitude of people. It is no surprise that many of ours, a loving break, losing a job, or even those small details such as moving from one city to another could lead to the feeling of loneliness, however, unless from the psychological point of view it is traumatizing, this, sooner or later,It will end up being overcome. But what happens when it is not overcome? What happens when you enter a vicious circle, where instead of turning off the fire, all we achieve is to take more firewood? What happens when after eithering so much in an idea, the conclusion is reached – in the apodyctic effect – that we are all really alone, and, more, it is convinced of this? Let’s see only the "problem of other minds", Carolina Scotto analyzes the following epistemological challenge:
Since I can only observe the behavior of others, how can I know that others have minds? The reasoning behind this issue is that, regardless of how sophisticated someone is the behavior, the behavior itself does not guarantee the presence of a mind. It would be possible, for example, that other people were more than automatons made of flesh and capable of responding to external stimuli;But not possessing a mind capable of ‘experimenting them’.
Therefore an individual could only be sure of what happens in his own mind, be sure that inside his head no one else can enter, that all those people around us are fictitious and illusory and that the only reason whyThey have the structure they have is because it is ourselves who give them. For issues of this world the only plausible existence is yours and only you have the power to verify it.
As we mentioned, events such as death, separation or dismissal can trigger the feeling of loneliness. All these share a common characteristic, being forgotten. When losing your job you can feel unusable, unproductive or incapable of a devouring and insatiable society that the only thing that seems to be wanted thereafter is to get rid of you, relegate and forget you;A separation is painful because that person with whom you dreaming of the rest of your days now only wants to have you among her memories, not necessarily the happiest. But it is death, the hug of Tanatos, the descent to earth, the return to nature, which constitutes the pinnacle of oblivion. One cannot stop thinking that time, in a few eons, none of the people who still step on the earth – if humanity can still prevail by then – would remember you. There is truly when horror begins, loneliness is like being dead in life, one is forgotten and is aware of it.
If of numerical, statistical matter and therefore, we can mention that there is a wave of recent research that shows high levels of solitude. A recent Cigna survey revealed that almost half of Americans always or sometimes feel alone (46%) or excluded (47%). Completely 54% said that always or, sometimes, feel that nobody knows them well. Loneliness is not just an American phenomenon. Other surveys taken in different parts of the globe show very similar figures. A third of the British said that often or very often they feel alone. Almost half of the British over 65 consider television or a pet as their main source of company. In Japan, there are more than half a million people under 40 who have not left their home or have not interacted with anyone for at least six months. In Canada, the proportion of lonely households is now 28%. Throughout the European Union, it is 34%. But the problem is not there, the social analysis can focus on that group of people who, today, are considered the most powerful and extended consumers in the world, so we are obliged to add to this disquisition the generational gap. Millennials are prioritizing both personal and social levels.
They have already greatly stabilized the solo life rates in their age group, despite their growing average marriage age and the decrease in fertility. Millennials congregate in improvised communities: they live together in extravagant families, go into mass to joint work spaces, they agglomerate in dense urban places and use technology to keep in communication. And, of course, they are much more likely to live with their parents. Even so, loneliness remains something that worries millennials a lot: according to the Viceland UK 2016 census, loneliness is the main fear of young people today, above losing a house or a job. 42% of millennium women are more afraid of loneliness than a diagnosis of cancer, the greatest proportion of all generations. The times have changed, and it is expected that with these changes something as inveterate also changed as the primary fears of the human being. Nothing is forever, even what has defined us as a kind for so long.
This fear, the fear of loneliness, is particularly painful for men and women, for the human race, since, we want or not, we are beings that need validation, beings that need to connect and have feedback. These interactions continuously form the outline of our personality, of our being, somehow helps us to fit into a society that, regardless of where you look, it is meaningless. Here it is worth mentioning that there is no need for a society with a sense of being, as long as man can give him one. It is necessary to make the following clarification. We are different, all of us, so not all have the requirement of a degree of high social interaction to be able to feel in company. There are people out there who are used to living in asylum, lonely by nature, for them they could spend a lot of time before they can realize their need to interact with another human being.
But, to the other extreme, there are also those who cannot support a single day without socializing, their need to interact with another human being is so great that, even being aware of it, they prefer to maintain toxic relationships with the only desire to not feel inIsolation, in solitude. The bigger the need to establish links with other people, it can be expected that the larger the frequency with which this individual will feel alone. The type of pain generatedwitness. We could sin in blaming technology, but being cannot take the full load, this is a profitable tool, which cannot be helpful is to abuse it.
Connectivity abuse leads us to an irremediable and contradictory loneliness. Today people hide after what they can show in their photos hung on a social network, in 140 characters or in something as vain as a simple reaction to internet content. The new era has brought some people closer to some people, for example to the elderly, for them the Internet is a blessing, it has taken them out of their little world to a more global one, to one where they can contact their own or with totally unknown people, and for them it does not turn out to be a danger since they have not been exposed to technology enough to realize what they can experience, we refer to the dangers that these new technologies presuppose. However, the new generations, those that were born in the technological era, see the abysmal spectrum of possibilities, but do not know what to do with these. The problem would focus on education, perhaps changing the way in which young people perceive communication through modern technologies, create a kind of technological social hygiene, but this would move us away from our main theme.
The loneliness that hyperconnectivity generates is due to the absence of body language and other social signals normally associated with face -to -face communication. The problem is that these visual signals cannot be interpreted when people use text messages as a form of communication. The vibrations and bells of the smartphone attract us to look at them by activating the same neuronal circuits in our brains that activate the escape or fight response, but now we are kidnapped by those same mechanisms that once protected us and allowed us to survive, to obtain the informationMore trivial. The abuse of technology consumes us, but we have come so far that we cannot escape from it, we need it, sometimes too much.
At the dawn of humanity, being alone was a death sentence, I returned to a vulnerable one, virtually anything could kill you, seeing those who fell alone in the inexorable nature conditioned us to seek company. This has changed, we no longer have to fight for food, for a roof, by heat, at least not from the primitive point of view. People become more self-sufficient, many get used to that lifestyle, of independence, are connected to the world despite not having people physically close, despite not being part of a group, but there are also those who cannot feelNo one’s company despite being surrounded by the entire world, a world whose access is in the palm of the hand. It is difficult to imagine how these people can live, with the worst terror that a human being can tolerate, that no one else can see or understand it because in the end one is alone in the face of the problem of feeling alone. Social and cultural changes have changed our natural fear of death for fear of loneliness, its modern equivalent. What’s next? Society will continue to change, and the perception of man for his environment too, there is no turning back. Is it perhaps that, after another very long period of evolution, whether biological or social, the greatest fear of the human being will cease to be loneliness and become the even more inescapable fear of living?
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