On occasion I do not see anyone for a while. I find this quite demoralising, as anyone knows it can be a lonely life. Now I do have a MAC and an xbox360, both have the capability to send and receive messages, in either voice or text form, and in some cases video. Now to keep in contact with my more distant friends in NZ and Czech republic this is perfect, but to use the same methods for those 12miles away? I am not sure if that is a good thing. Convenient it might be but it is not the same as face-to-face social contact.
Allot of this comes down to jobs and house prices; jobs are now on average 40mins away. This means that any friends you make in work tend to be further away. And when friends go to university or college, again they tend to get distant from you.
And then there are house prices, everyone I know in my village has moved away either to get better jobs or due to high house prices. An example of this is at the back of our house there is a lane with what used to be hovels that are now going for £150,000 pounds. And these are hovels, not exactly big. How is a local supposed to afford this? They cannot so they leave.
In a strange twist, as some people drift apart, others are coming together. Gangs are more prevalent as a social grouping with the young than ever before. Some people blame poverty and crime, but I wonder if it is youth acting in the face of a society that is becoming increasingly distant and cold.
2 comments:
Evening classes, local groups and societies, or voluntary work - all ways of getting to know a few more people locally.
You have to watch that isolation - dangerous stuff
What are these local groups and societies? The masons?
Another way of getting to know a few more people locally, is to look through their letterbox while they're out enjoying themselves with their mates.
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