Isn't it strange how easy it is to communicate with somebody these days?

You could text somebody in the middle of the night. You could ring up somebody thousands of kilometres away from you. You open an application and immediately find out what hundreds of people are doing right now.

And yet, it's possible to put your phone aside and feel totally alone.

And I believe that connectedness does not equal to feeling connected.

We have all these ways to contact people, but notifications are no substitutes for real conversation. Liking posts is different from asking people how they are. Having hundreds of followers doesn't mean that there is somebody to call when things go awry.

There is one more thing.

Sometimes I start looking through applications when I am feeling lonely. And scrolling for a while, watching other people's life and responding to some messages I somehow feel even more disconnected afterwards.

It's not really anybody's fault though.

After all, social media was not supposed to substitute real friendship. It only makes communication easier.

Perhaps that’s why sometimes we forget to put the effort that connection requires.

Real conversations can feel uncomfortable.

You have to listen.

You have to be present.

Sometimes you have to endure silence.

There is not always a skip button.

But maybe this is exactly what gives them meaning.

I don’t think that we have to disconnect ourselves from the internet and stop communicating with people online.

I only think that we should remember that we might be accessible but not understood.

Sometimes what we need is not a notification.

It’s a person who really listens.

A conversation when neither party is looking at the clock.

An evening when the phone stays on the table and there is no desire to take it.

Maybe in today’s world loneliness is not always about nobody being nearby.

Sometimes it is about too many contacts that never become intimate.

And maybe it is this aspect that we should pay more attention to.