“Sawubona”, meaning I see you, is the very first thing that comes out of a Zulu speaking person when they see someone, and the response would generally be ‘Ngikhona’ which means I am here. This simple greeting is a profound way of stressing on the importance of human connection that is found in human beings like it is explicitly said through the Zulu folk saying “Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu” meaning “A person is a person because of other people”.
This phenomenon of connection has also evolved along with human evolution and right now we have complex social connection. It plays such a huge role that both qualitative and quantitative factors of this human connection contribute much towards the individual’s mental and physical well-being. Then came the advent of digital technology and there has been a paradigm shift in the way human started connecting with each other like how a study suggests that texting has become the number one choice for communication among teenagers . This essay aims to explore the changes that has occurred in the ways in which humans interacted, connected and communicated with each other, before and after the advent of digital technology and the changes that it has brought in the quality of the connection, mental well-being and other such factors.
Humans and social Connection:
The human population proves to be the most interesting group of animals that lives on this planet, who share DNA with almost all the organisms that has ever lived on the planet Earth. But what makes the human race special is not the ability to live socially, or the ability to create and use tools, but their unparalleled ability to engage their minds together in order to learn and pass on the skills that they learnt. Humans were the one who were capable of ideologically changing the societies in which they lived in and transmitted the culture big time . For such things to happen being in a society was of paramount importance and in fact this need for social connection is deeply embedded in the way we are made itself.
Importance of Human connection:
Studies have shown that the connections that a human has, mainly the social connections have impacts on both the short term and long-term goals of the person. This very important attribute has been well understood by everyone and it has also been used as a medium of punishment under extreme conditions. A great example of that is the torture given to captors of wars, the punishment of social isolation which eventually results in psychological and physical breakdown. This need for connection and belonging business has been with the human race from the very early times. Studies shows that human race started to group together in order to make it easier for living, hunting, providing mates and providing care. Hence it is very evident that this quality has an evolutionary basis. During the initial years of the human race, an adult being in a group and having an attachment means high chances of reproduction resulting in an offspring which is also taken care with connection who also has a high chance in reproducing, and also to survive during scarcity by sharing the available resources to make sure the members of race survive. Since then, the humans have been living as social animals and to this day it continues to be so.
Certain studies state that the feeling of happiness is deeply associated with the quantity and quality of close social bonds a person has and deprivation in them leads to serious psychological and physical illness.
The social connections that are proven to be an integral part of a human survival is classified into three categories: strong ties, weak ties and absent ties. A strong tie is something that is held with the close relations namely a person’s father, mother, brother, best friends and so on. They are sometimes called as first circle as well. The second set of ties, the weak ties are the acquaintances and in colloquial language, they are the ‘Hi bye’ friends. When compared to the strong ties, people get most of the diversified information from the weak ties and the connections in the weak ties who joins two or more groups are called as bridges. The third type of ties are the absent ties, these ties looks like they exist, but they don’t in reality . The business situation where these principles are applied are discussed in the later part of this review.
Early Human interactions:
Right now, everything seems so easy, communicating with people, searching information and sharing them with the help of internet and social media. But before that things weren’t that quick or easy which is also portrayed through this funny saying “Web design was exclusive to arachnids” As explained already, humans needed social connections to evolve and also lead a happy life. The task of networking and making connections is so much of an importance to a human being and is beautifully portrayed in “Timon of Athens” by Shakespeare where Timon said “I am wealthy in my friends” . Studies shows that the transition from being an individual organism living in solidarity to starting to live in groups were found in the genetic ancestors who evolved into Humans about 52 million years ago and there has been no going back from this practice ever since.
As mentioned earlier, the early human ancestral primates, unlike the other animals which started to form as groups in a gradual manner, started forming groups in burst manner (Meaning, came together at once). These early humans were formed because, being in groups gave them safety. So the very first way in which humans interacted with each other was moving in-person and meeting face to face. That was how the phenomenon of interaction first came into picture. Even though the platforms we use to connect with each other are modern, the concept of social connection has been there for a long time. Studies show that if there was a social media platform for the pre-historic human beings, the type of connections they possess would be more or less identical to the connections that modern people have . This social connection brought in a sense of co-operation in them which in-turn allowed their tribe to flourish in a better manner. There has been studies specifically made to understand the social structure of the early humans and one particular study done by researchers at UCL states that there has been inter-tribal/ inter-camp reciprocal sharing (i.e interactions) between the hunter-gatherer society . One of the key authors of this study feels that, it would be just right, if this inter-camp communication and reciprocal sharing among this hunter gatherer society is their Social media.