My animated film examines the notion of loneliness in the 21st century. Research into the loneliness of modern people is just starting to be recognised as an topic of research. In modern society worldwide, people have quick and convenient ways of communicating using social media including Wechat, or Weibo in China, and Facebook or Whatsapp in the rest of the world.
Yet people still feel lonely and there are more suicides among young people. Human emotional needs haven’t changed. They are still keen to connect with other human beings, but depression, anxiety and mental illness are on the increase. indicating that social media isn’t making people feel better, but worse.
A hug ‘expression’ can’t replace a real hug and it would seem that convenient and quick virtual communication is not a good remedy for loneliness. People are keen to put their profiles on social media, but often, these are constructed images of themselves and this can lead to a state of seperation from the reality of their life.
This seems to be the general state of urban youth worldwide. Even in people’s real social life, everyone is playing with their mobile phones, and the topic of conversation is often about what is happening on social networking sites. We seem to be a strangers in a strange world.
