Since the birth of our beautiful baby girl, we haven’t had much time to be social. Well, to be honest we haven’t had time for much other than surviving the infant colic and our own physical problems we suffered as a result of carrying a crying baby around 24/7 for several months. People need people. We need to be able to talk to our friends about pointless things. We need to be able to discuss the upcoming election or the crazy people in the current reality-shows on TV. So how do you cope if you’re hardly able to leave your apartment at all?
Facebook and Twitter are both services that allow you to get a glimpse into the lives of your friends and aquaintances. They also allow you to vent frustrations, and get a friendly “Like” when you post about something positive that has happened in your life. This feels rather obvious, and I’ve used these services for what they’re worth during the tough times we’ve gone through lately.
Our other obsession during this time, has been to watch E.R. on DVD. We’ve gone through several seasons now, and it wasn’t until I read a post by Jonah Lehrer about “Television and loneliness” (via Jorunn) that I realized why we became so completely hooked on watching this particular show. It’s the people. You get to know the doctors and patients, you like some, you hate some, and generally experience some sort of social connection with these fictious characters.
Interesting stuff. I recommend reading Jonah’s post!
I too am a big fan of Facebook and the opportunity to share big stuff and tiny stuff with friends near and far. There are times I don’t want to leave the house, but I still want some sort of interaction (with pretend people, it’s Gilmore Girls and Stargate). When we were living with my family it was nice to have other people around much of the time, not to mention the babysitters.