All you need to survive these days is air, food, water, and an internet connection. That’s right, we have perfected the art of online life to the degree that one literally does not have to leave home if one does not want to. But perhaps that is not such a good idea. The internet certainly has its bright side. But it also has a dark side: a propensity to turn us into hermits.
A hermit’s life is the ugly side of online living. Human beings are social creatures. We are not meant to live in isolation. Yet as we become increasingly more comfortable with doing things online, isolation is the natural result. Where will humanity be 100 years from now if we continue on the current trajectory?
Get Your Food Online
Online living wasn’t all that threatening back when you still needed to leave home for basic necessities. But now, all your basic necessities can be delivered to your door. You can get your food online from just about any supermarket. Order what you want, pay for it with your credit card, and go watch TV while you wait for the delivery.
Home delivery of groceries used to be a service reserved for the elderly and involuntary shut-ins. Now it is a service for everyone. And quite frankly, many of us don’t mind paying a little extra if that means we can avoid going to the store. It is almost creepy.
Get Your Healthcare Online
Healthcare is another basic necessity of life. Guess what? You do not necessarily have to leave home for it. Visit the Canada Pharmacy website to buy one of the many common prescription medications they carry. And if they don’t have what you need, there is a good chance your local pharmacy will deliver a filled prescription right to your door.
Need to see your primary care physician? If it’s not an emergency, there’s no need to go to the office. Telemedicine lets you consult with your doctor from the comfort of your own home. It is getting to be that the only reason to visit a healthcare facility is to undergo tests, have surgery, or access life-saving treatment.
Losing Our Social Skills
The most unfortunate thing in all of this is that we are losing our social skills. People do not know how to speak to one another anymore. They know how to text; they know how to post on social media; they know how to send emojis and type in internet shorthand. But they cannot look one another in the eye and utter a simple ‘hello’.
Social media has only made things worse. There used to be a time when people knew how to engage in civil discourse without insulting one another. There was a time when people could disagree without calling each other names or issuing threats. All that has gone out the window with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, et al.
Easier to Stay Home
It seems like everyone is looking for an argument today. No matter what you try to say, no matter how innocuous it might be, there are legions of people waiting to cut you down and tell you how wrong you are. It’s no wonder so many people are content to stay locked up in their houses.
Coronavirus plays into this as well. Even if you are not sick and never have been, fear of encountering people with an agenda just makes it easier to stay home. And so, a lot of us are becoming hermits. We can buy everything we need online, but is that really enough?
