The need to belong

For me, what really stood out from the article, was the need for us to connect and belong to a community. All thanks to modern technology, if we were to do a simple search on the various social platforms, we can easily find like-minded communities. Experts share that belonging to a community e.g. joining a faith or hobby group is one of the main keys to reduce stress. Marslow's Hierachy of Needs also shares that a sense of belonging and being loved and accepted is ranked only above physiological needs and safety needs. Having a sense of belonging improves our happiness and motivation, which in turn improves our health.

Many may think that technology has made us anti-social. We seem to spend more time on devices rather than to communicate with the people around us. I beg to differ. Quoting what American entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk said, technology has not only made us more sociable, it has also exposed the fact that we may not really enjoy being where we are at physically at that point of time. We often lament that though we are physically at a certain meeting, our mind and soul are not. Well, technology has exposed that.

I especially like what Karyn Hall, Ph.D. , the author of The Emotionally Sensitive Person, Mindfulness Exercises, and SAVVY said in this article, that to belong to a community takes effort. We need to first accept others and be sensitive to the needs of others. We need to show up consistently ready to value add.

At the end of the day, human's psychological needs have not change. Technology has only enabled us to form more meaningful interactions with like-minded friends across different countries and cultures.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/grieved-when-baby-born-blind-visually-impaired-world-possibility-15002458