When I listen to my parents talking about how they used to roam around with their friends, telling me anecdotes of how fun their evenings used to be, I am stabbed by a pinch of jealousy.
It is wrong to be jealous of my parents’ happiness but I am not jealous of it, I am jealous of how they had true friends while in my generation, everyone is so aloof and away. I believe that the masses of the millennial population may relate to me.
Our lives are running fast, and this fact stands even truer for urban settlements. Most of us are so busy with our life and work that we have shifted our focus from fun to competition.
We are surrounded by people but have no one to talk to, no one to share our sorrows and happiness with. This is exactly what urban loneliness is.
There are various reasons for and consequences of urban loneliness.
Reasons
1. Competitive Atmosphere
In present times, our life is governed by a competitive attitude rather than a cooperative one. Friends are more about how much help one can extract from them rather than being about companionship and fun.
Most of us show on the outside that we are best of friends and will remain together for eternity but as soon as one of us gets more successful than the other, friendship takes a back seat and the reason behind this may be the ego coming out of success.
The dialogue from 3 Idiots movie, “Jab dost fail hota hai toh bura lagta hai par agar dost top kare to aur bura lagta hai” stands very much true in the present scenario.
There are two sides to this coin which heavily contribute to present day’s urban loneliness.
One is that it’s due to the adaptation of the western patterns of lifestyle. People avoid talking much to their neighbours. They are engulfed by a sense of jealousy for their neighbours rather than having an attitude of existence.
2. Busy Schedules
Another reason behind this lack of communication may be the fact that nuclear families are prevalent in modern Indian households and all the members of the family are working.
They do not get enough time to interact with their family members, let alone the neighbours. Weekends are also spent meeting deadlines or sleeping on the couch.
3. Lifestyle And Status Mismatch
The other side to it is that a lot of people in the urban cities are status-conscious. Rich people hesitate to interact with people whom they do not find fit for their social circle, be it economically, culturally, intellectually or even due to physical appearance.
I have personally seen intelligent people being left out just because others think they don’t know how to chill or they cannot rant on illogical topics for hours.
This trend makes me sad and worried.
Read Also: Do Small Town People Feel Complexed From Metro City Crowd?
Consequences
Every person has two choices, one is the way walked by everyone and one is the path which may seem very unrealistic and difficult to walk but could turn out to be a better one.
Mental Health Issues
One of the major reasons for a constant rise in the level of depression and anxiety in urban folks is the increasing level of loneliness and isolation.
People fail to find a listening ear in times of need and most of them resort to creating a bubble in which they live with their insecurities, making their lives difficult and uncomfortable all the while they think they do not have any other choice.
However, you do have a choice. Being a person who had been in the same situation and is somewhat stuck in the same place even now, I can say that staying stagnant and mentally rotten is of no use.
Go With The Flow
We need to understand that this generation is less about stagnancy and more about moving on and we have to live with it. We need to grab whatever we get and have to let go when the time demands so.
Going with the flow is the best thing to do and as far as friends are concerned, what do we have books and animals for? One may lose all hope and think that everything is temporary but it is futile crying for it (talking from personal experience).
Hold the hand of hope and go out, own the world!
That’s some real millennial gyaan, kiddos! ;)
Image Source: Google Images
Sources: Planetizen, Deccan Herald, JCDecaux
Find The Blogger at: @innocentlysane
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