The city – full of zest, glitz and glamour and all that jazz. It is said to be the pulse of a country and where economic progress is centred at. Amidst all that are its people who create the city as it is, living in six degrees of separation. As life becomes profoundly more mercurial and intricately complex with tectonic shifts, the labyrinth we live in today has robbed most of us, to say the least, of something we yearn for, desire, need, want – creating an empty space that is loneliness. Though loneliness is a major problem in city, it is not necessarily the only problem given the myriad of troubles that plague the world today.
The advent of the internet has enhanced the connectivity between two people regardless of geographical boundaries. It has created various matchmaking and online chatting services that allow people to fall in love without meeting each other prior. A burgeoning number of couples who are dating first got to know each other via online dating services. For instance, Taiwanese author Gladden met his girlfriend of four years via her blog. Matchmaking companies use the internet to find a potential bride for someone. Family members have been able to stay in touch via skype. Thanks to technology, communication has been enhanced that diminish prospect for loneliness to be dominant in one’s life and create a major problem, especially in city life.
As people today adopt a more active lifestyle and are interested to acquire new skills, more are dining out, joining classes and spend a relaxed day somewhere out. This has widened the breadth of interactions between people. Through social interactions, we are able to make new friends that do away with loneliness. Social support systems available such as religious institutions too provide the opportunity for city dwellers to interact with each other. In Singapore, more locals are actively joining marathon (Nike Race – within six days all spots were taken) and taking up speed dating services. One reason for lower loneliness too is that companies these days emphasize corporate social responsibility (CSR) that create a compulsory requirement for employees to do community service. It is refreshing for a city dweller to temporarily take leave from the fast pace, hectic working life that causes one to be caught up with it and lose social interaction that is vital for anyone being.
If one stays connected to world issues, the comprehensive problems that engulf us today, makes loneliness take a back seat. The passionate debate about environmental issues, child trafficking and slow economic growth have wider and grave consequences. Solutions to these problems have not been absolute and abided to as promised which poses a more serious problem than loneliness which has available avenues for one to channel and suppress. In fact, it is these problems that actually proliferated one’s communications with each other. Demonstrators from all over the globe usually come together to protests against something they agree such as protests against the IMF and the negative impact of the capitalist economy. As these people come together for a common course, the similar interest they share, allow one to forget loneliness and feel content to fight for something they believe in with like-minded people. City dwellers, they no longer are, but unrecognized soldiers.
However, though on a majority scale, loneliness may not be a problem, for some it is a significant problem that would pose a major problem to their loved ones. In a city, besides workers, students who live in one have access to various electronic goods that can strip away communication from the world. Point in case – video games. Consumers can become so absorbed in it that at times they forget they are actually living, forgetting their daily routines as they become preoccupied with the games. In Japan, video gamers are known to have died from being obsessed with playing that they forget to blink. It could be because they could be lonely and play such games to negate loneliness, self-immersed in it and worry parents.
Globalisation has sewn the world closer and has seen a greater influx of migrants to cities in hope of a better life by earning higher wages that are used to support their families. The “city-dwellers” would feel loneliness as they are separated from loved ones and do not really know anyone in the place they have migrated to. Moreover, they also do not have the financial means usually to afford electronic goods that allow them to remain in touch with the loved ones. For instance, many Bangladesh, Thai and Chinese workers stay in Singapore in dormitories – evident of their low income to have a comfortable place of their own. While their roommates may transiently erase loneliness, these migrants who live in the city are lonely but do not pose a major problem for a government to interfere.
Loneliness – the feeling of being cut off, alienated and disconnected from the others in an urban environment that thrives on a high standard of living seems to have or inverse relationship between city and loneliness. In view of the majority, it does not pose a major problem in city life but for the minor few whose character may not be appreciated by others or for those who do not speak the same language, do experience loneliness in large volumes, but it is more on a personal level than a national one to be seen as a major problem.