It's strange isn't it?  Thinking back to Christmas, the local TV news did a piece on how lonely some elderly people were and how if they didn't have carers visiting they wouldn't speak to anyone for days.  Yet one of my customers (a regular church-goer) put her name down for an "Extra Chair" scheme  --  no takers.

My mother lives in sheltered accommodation and some of the more active have tried to get (or keep) various activities going, with little success.  Coffee Mornings are down to half-a-dozen, Fishy Fridays  --  three or four.  The manager was supportive when I suggested having a lunch time drop-in, she printed and delivered notes to every resident to let them know we would be in the communal lounge and anyone was welcome to join us with a sandwich to watch the lunch-time news together.  Not a single person came for over a week, so we gave up.

Even Age UK has stopped its weekly visits as there were more volunteers than visitors.

I can't remember if it was on this board that I bemoaned my local pub that only a few years ago was lively at weekends with working people, their friends and families catching up and relaxing together, but was now almost deserted.  How I watched a group of regulars come in (all on their mobiles), put money on the bar, collect their pints and retreat to a table without a word to me, the bar-maid or each other.  Where they sat drinking in silence, still on their phones.

I feel my world has shrunk since I have become my mother's carer.  Between doing two jobs and spending more time with her I have little time for much else.  I don't use FB or Twitter but "talk" to friends often via email and find they are in the same position, little time to do anything except fire off emails instead of getting together physically.

I can't help thinking that it's probably a devious plot to destroy cohesion and limit interaction between people.  Encouraging everyone to become more solitary and fill the gap with whatever appears on the screens in front of their faces where they can be constantly bombarded with adverts and propaganda.