Today’s media world is replacing the flesh and blood relationships that used to be expected as a natural course of socialization. Selfies have replaced conversations. Everything is edited. Blanket approval trumps real connection. Now we are aimed at a time when if will be normal for people to hide behind AI to represent their intellectual accomplishments.
Today, people come to us in despair and isolation, without a sense of who they really are out in the world. Even people who never experienced social anxiety before COVID struggle with being around people now.
Ironically, concerned as I am about isolation, my practice has gone online. I’m both guarding my own health and providing service to a wider (literally) range of people than I would be able to do in an office practice.
But this does cause me to wonder.