Social skill deficits
In a bleak future, the Philippines grapples with a deepening social crisis. As the country's natural landscapes wither under the weight of extreme congestion and pollution, face-to-face interactions dwindle, replaced by the cold embrace of virtual socialization. Yet, this shift only serves to isolate and disconnect society further.
Filipinos, once known for their warmth and hospitality, find themselves adrift in a sea of digital noise, struggling to navigate the nuances of human interaction. Deprived of the cues of body language, gestures, and tones, they stumble through shallow and toxic relationships, their empathy and understanding eroded by the digital divide.
In the education system, remote learning reigns supreme, relegating interpersonal skills to the annals of history. Children, raised on a diet of screens and avatars, find themselves ill-equipped for the complexities of human connection, their social development stunted by the cold glow of virtual classrooms.
Amidst the ease of virtual communication, meaningful connections become a rarity, drowned out by the cacophony of excessive information sharing and superficial criteria. Dating becomes a game of superficiality, toxic behavior the norm, as individuals vie for validation in a digital echo chamber devoid of empathy and moderation.
In this desolate landscape, mental and emotional well-being hang in the balance, casualties of a society lost in the illusion of connection, yet devoid of genuine human warmth.
In a Philippines where traffic congestion seems perpetual, Filipinos find themselves confined to virtual meet-ups with friends, unable to navigate the gridlocked streets outside. As hours stretch into days and days into weeks, the once vibrant streets become desolate, choked by the ceaseless flow of vehicles. With each missed opportunity for face-to-face connection, the sense of isolation deepens, casting a shadow over the collective spirit of the city.
When it comes to dating apps, it's not just your potential partner that has to swipe right; their entire extended family has to evaluate you too.
Selected Quotes
...[W]hat I can imagine is instead of having tech interactions, the technical side -- I mean, societies made through tech be more realistic. This will make the human experiences be more like tech. Let's say, instead of physically getting together, that will become discouraged, and the norm would be simply meeting online. You know how in Wall-E, where, instead of people just go and walk to each other, they just call. And then that's gonna be, that's all the socialization they're gonna have. So we can imagine how bad that could be. With the number of _ people stuck on the Internet for socialization right now, you know, those perpetually online on Reddit Discord. And that's basically all the social experiences they had. Imagine that but for everyone where again you won't see. For instance, you won't see people having parties, you won't see people in parks and theaters, and then everyone would just be stuck online. And then the only way you're gonna you would know someone is the way you just saw them in a video call, or the way they chat you behind a profile picture that isn't remotely them. So that would destroy a lot of socialization that we do. And imagine by then improvements as a society, innovations, breakthroughs, would be much less frequent. Because then, again, I do agree that we are humans, and it's pretty much ingrained in us that we are better off with working with other people. A lot of the breakthroughs that we have right now don't happen unless there is collaboration between people, so having a bad having bad socialization, that's just gonna be very negative for the improvement or development of humanity as a whole.
My pessimist view of [socialization in the future] is [that] everyone's wearing goggles. Like everyone [only] interacts in the digital world now. Like I don't know.. social media is kind of doing that right now. Like I said...when I was being optimistic, I said I wanted a chance to talk to friends in other countries or like even in other cities, because, you know, we're from the south; it's hard [to hang out] with the [Quezon City] people. But at the same time, if all we do is...just wearing goggles; if we're just always in our digital world, then what's our personal identity?
Well, let's go to the negative side of my Ready Player One vision...when it reaches a point where everyone just lives there [in the OASIS]. So yeah, that's another thing. In relation to socialization, like the metaverse and all that...I was for it. Like I was excited about the metaverse, but at the same time, I was scared of it...[like what] if it [could cause] people to just stay [in the metaverse], or like not socialize anymore outside of [it]? And that also can be a case with entertainment. What if we just live in our NBA 2K lives because that's where we're happy, or what if we just live in our Star Wars world because, you know, we're cool there? Stuff like that. It takes away the value of life itself.
...The next worst case that can happen there is people having problems...when it comes to social interaction, and...you might be afraid to speak with somebody out there, [like] real people...Mahirap yan, especially when talking to a real person, kasi it affects your ability to read body language, gestures, tones, etc. And at the same time, it erases the fact that there's an actual person out there, so your empathy can be affected as well.
We have a term: "Ipad kids"...I feel so bad for these iPad kids; they just look at their iPads the whole day. And the way they speak...for example: my nephew is an iPad kid, and he's undergoing developmental issues because he's so addicted to his iPad. So like I could see: oh my God, [if] this is happening to my nephew, what more [with] other kids? I can already imagine that in the future, really negative things will happen because of tech. So again, back to the example of my nephew, he is so addicted to his iPad to the point that he has [more] virtual friends on Roblox than in school; I would say that he has only has one friend [in real life]. It's like there are more borders being created than ever before, and it's being felt right at a very young age.
..well, let's go back to the pandemic. If everything is remote...where's the socialization there? It affects that too...[O]ver the pandemic, the future of work became a big thing, right? People were doing remote work all the time, and stuff like that. While it's nice to stay at home, I don't see it for education, because honestly, I didn't learn anything in the pandemic. And if that becomes a norm in the future, especially now that the tech is available...I don't know if that [would work]...I don't see it [happening]. It's not just the socialization [that's affected], but [also] the learning itself.
...[S]chool, as we know it in the Philippines, is very traditional. A lot of the classes that we take at least in the past 3, 4 years, even post-pandemic obviously, we have like online learning modes right now. But, I think, we all know how that turned out when you don't see each other face to face, it's a different experience. Maybe you connect less. I guess there's a human component to education in the sense of like, you have a, a professor and students in the classroom. Maybe there's like something unique to that that we might lose moving forward if let's say, everything were to be automated.
[There would be so much] more traffic to the point where we can barely see each other in real life.
So this means that the human connection itself, or like speaking in front of a person, will definitely be affected. And it's really important for us to preserve that, especially right now that having technology so immersed with our communication, it affects our brains, [and] the way we communicate. For example, I think I've read this study recently that smartphones are concluded to be really detrimental for children...it affects their brain development at an early stage, so it hampers the ability to communicate effectively or affects that social interaction. So...mas less optimistic ako dahil sa part na yan when it comes to social relations.
If having the technology around us becomes too overwhelming, and education wouldn't be affected because of how we think. For a concrete example, I can think of...this generation of iPad kids, where [very young kids], like 2 to 4, their brains, haven't even [adjusted and developed], but they are already given these devices, iPads for them to keep on watching. They play, or they get heavily influenced by other stuff, whereas they can't even think yet, so that you can picture how that can raise a generation of educationally deprived students. I believe if you become an iPad kid, your brain hasn't developed, your parents haven't taken really good care of you, and you just had this device all the time, when you go to school, you're gonna have problems, I believe there's been a lot of research, I can't cite any right now. But I I'm pretty sure like that's gonna happen if someone spends too much time of their early years facing a device, facing technology, they are going to have issues with school.
So socialization, negative impact of that would be...highlighting the difference between communicating and connecting so people may talk but do people really feel connected if there's too much socialization opportunities like, do you like, If it's so easy to talk to anyone on the Internet, regardless of basta, they have access to Internet like, can you really identify like who your real friends are like? There's a lot of like things to think about there.
And also, since we know a lot about people, we're more likely to have borders with the people that we meet; [since] we know [people's] interests, it is more likely [now] that we'll have outcasts in society because of these apps. Or...the fact that now, for example, if you don't have Facebook or Instagram, you can be an outcast again, because you don't have [your own] information out there. So people will judge you for not having information or not being part of the technology, or advancements like Facebook. And they will also judge you based on what you are putting online. Aside from that, dating wise...the same thing. Our manner of choosing people we should date is no longer natural, because it's really superficial; the way we find people that we should date is so superficial now. We have unrealistic standards set by K-Pop idols or celebrities, and then you're applying it to Bumble...like jeez, that's why you're getting single. Our bars are so high, I'd say.
