Eight pillars of connection

From 8 Ways of Connecting a Smartphone Can't Deliver by Ted Gioia.  The subheading is They are the pillars of a happy life. So why are they under such fierce attack?

My systematizing brain rebels because the list has duplications and omissions.  My intuition is there is none-the-less useful insight.

These are alarming statistics but the don’t even begin to capture the total assault on connectedness that’s currently underway.

Here are my eight pillars of connection—and none of them require Wi-Fi access.

If you want a happy life, you nurture them. If you let them all topple, you’re at grave risk.

Connection with the natural world;

Connection with family, friends, neighbors, colleagues;

Connection with history and tradition;

Connection with the community via institutions and organizations (e.g., civic engagement);

Connection via charitable acts, and giving (material and emotional) support;

Connection with spiritual and other metaphysical or higher values—sources of meaning outside the materialist realm;

Connection with creative human expression in art;

Connection via all those other things a computer can't provide (love, forgiveness, fidelity, trust, empathy, kindness, etc.).

 

Here’s the saddest part of the story. We all recognize the importance of these things—yet each one of these connections is currently eroding in society.

It’s even worse—they are all under attack simultaneously. That’s true whether we’re talking about the natural world, or friendships, or civic engagement, or whatever.

I note that religion and church intersect across several of these eight paths, hinting at one of the losses which we have failed to attend to.