We live in an age of unprecedented 24/7 connection, in which Facebook, email, text messaging and other forms of electronic communication have us instantly connected to anyone and everyone around us.
And yet, despite being more connected than ever, many of us are also experiencing a profound and pervasive sense of isolation and disconnectedness. We skate along the surface of our relationships, having swapped quantity for quality and frequency for depth.
The explanation for this seeming contradiction of isolation and disconnectedness in a massively interconnected world is that most of us have never learned – or seem to have forgotten – how to connect or even what it means to connect on a fundamental level.
Connection in the age of social media is even more challenging when electronic communication – including not only emails and texts but also posts, comments, likes and impromptu online chats – seduce us into believing that we are connecting more deeply than we really are. While these forms of communication certainly broaden our opportunities to connect, they can also crowd out the more human, meaningful and multi-dimensional ways of interacting, and even create the illusion of intimacy when in fact we are still emotionally disconnected.
And with online connections offering an unprecedented view into other people’s lives – but none of the sustenance of deeper, more meaningful relationships – many of us feel even worse that our lives are empty by comparison and simply don’t measure up.
The I Factor gets back to basics on what’s been missing from our personal relationships all along. Specifically, this book is about intimacy, a fresh take on a very old subject and a new way of looking at a forgotten idea.