#social-disconnection

#social-disconnection

Existential isolation is the recognition that no matter how close you get to another human being, there remains a gap between your inner experience and theirs that can never be fully bridged. Psychologist Irvin Yalom wrote about it extensively - this sense that we each enter the world alone and leave it alone, and that even in our most intimate moments, we are fundamentally separate.

Earlier this year, an OpenAI study reached a troubling conclusion: Heavy ChatGPT users are more likely to report loneliness than non-users. The correlation between usage and feelings of social disconnection was strongest among people who leaned on the large language model for companionship and emotional support. The findings echo warnings from scholars, including Sherry Turkle of MIT, that "relationships" with machines often erode our capacity for the messy, demanding work of real connection.