Zoe’s World: Nothing Beats A Little Bit Of Social Contact

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Zoe 1I AM lucky enough to be surrounded by people for most of my life. I am also lucky enough to not be a lonely person. There is of course a difference.

It is only recently that I realised how many people are actually lonely in the world. Whether that be them feeling alone in a crowded room, or genuinely being alone with no one to care for them. It really terrified me; and I thought that it would be important to draw attention to it.

Usually, when we wish to refer to those who may be lonely or alone, our thoughts go straight to the elderly who may be widowers or widows or may just be single or bachelors. We tend to pity these people but unless we are of the rare few, we don’t tend to do anything about it.

I suppose this is where you ask the question, what do you do?

Firstly, picture this.

You are just after doing the big Tesco shop after a long day, you head to the check out desk and there is only one person in the line ahead of you.

All is good, you start to daydream about the meal that you are intending on having that night, or you may be on your phone tweeting the time away. You eventually realise that you have been waiting a lot longer than expected, and it is because the person ahead of you simply cannot stop talking.

That is usually the moment when your patience fades, and the glares start. The person ahead of you, male or female, has decided to tell their life story to the person behind the desk and simply refuses to move on.

Now, instead of getting angry and wildly exclaiming to your facebook friends about just how unfair this is, just relax.

Did it ever occur to you that this is the only conversation that the person has been able to have all day, or all week? This could be their opportunity to indulge in just a little bit of human contact. They could be crippled by loneliness; so please calm the glares and let them indulge.

It doesn’t hurt anyone.

Secondly, most people in the human species (at least we can live in hope) are semi decent people who are just going about their normal lives. Exchanging some sort of communication with these people can hardly hurt. A smile, a comment on the weather; it just reinstates the fact that we still retain the ability to speak in real life as well as on social media.

As great as social media is; it is not a cure for loneliness, that’s one thing for sure. Nothing can beat just a little social contact.

On the other hand; some people may not live alone and they may have a bunch of friends, but they could still be lonely. It is not your job to care for these people, but it isn’t fair to disregard them either.

I must admit, it feels a little odd to be giving you guys instructions on how to communicate with each other (well almost), considering that you spend half our lives ridiculing our generation for constantly being on our phones.

I’m hoping that general etiquette can still remain in high value despite all the changes that our society is going through. I know that in certain ways we can be super conscious of people now; we spend half our time debating whether or not the guy walking down the road is a serial killer or not.

Consider the people around you in this manner I guess, but try to be aware of the thoughts and feelings of those around you as well.

You never know who could be one step from the edge of the cliff.

Check out Zoë O’Connor’s website teentimes.eu or follow her on Twitter here

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