Are we really connected or just in touch?— Richard Lopez

Social media, the term in itself, leaves a bittersweet taste in the reader's mouth. An impersonal medium of communication that is supposed to be social. This oxymoron is the reason why this blog is being written and why a TED talk about it happened in the first place.

Richard Lopez

Richard Lopez, in his TED Talk, ‘Reimagining social connections in the digital age’, talks about the guilty pleasure of seeking comfort in shallow likes and comments instead of deep, real, and vulnerable human connections. The lack of warmth, of simply being, might be our greatest loss as a generation. This widely discussed, criticized, and above everything addictive part of our daily lives has replaced 'being in connection' with 'staying in touch'. We are in touch with a hundred people through social media apps, but might not connect with even ten in real life.

The daunting part is that most of us dwell in this world of perceived reality without even realizing it. The generation of immense possibilities is struggling to cope with loneliness and reports high levels of emotional distress. While the world cannot do without social media, it can learn about developing a healthy relationship with it.

This is where Lopez’s idea of using social media as the medium of information comes into play. He suggests that social media can be used as a means of connecting people with each other to facilitate real-life meetings and form valuable relationships in the long run.

Social media is not rocket science, but it has been altering the social science of relationships for a long time. So, it might be time to look at it as a detachable part of us, rather than our impression of ourselves and the world we live in.

The great myth of our time is that technology is communication — Libby Larsen

Credits

Oshi Shrivastava

2025-27