Latest / The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast / Tech & oneliness: Reclaiming Connection in the Age of Artificial Intimacy - EP10
Transcript
- 0:02We are losing, in a way, this capacity, I think, to be with
- 0:06paradox and complexity and messiness and stay with the
- 0:10trouble, stay with the yeah, with, with everything that
- 0:13really makes us or makes our relationships human.
- 0:19What does it mean to feel connected to others, to
- 0:22yourself, and to something greater?
- 0:24Welcome to the In Between Trust Podcast, the podcast at the
- 0:28intersection of tech and trust. In this episode, I speak with
- 0:31Monica Young, researcher, writer, and community curator,
- 0:35about the emotional fabric of trust, loneliness, and what is
- 0:39called oneliness. We explore how technology can
- 0:43mediate or sometimes even flatten our senses of belonging,
- 0:47and why intimacy, difference, and presence are central to
- 0:52designing trustworthy connections.
- 0:55Hello, Monica, I'm so pleased to welcome you to the In Between
- 0:59Trust podcast. Thank you so much for having me,
- 1:01I'm happy. To be here, it's a pleasure to
- 1:03talk to you today about one of the topics that you've been
- 1:08spending so much time on for the past couple of months and like
- 1:12weeks as well. And it's in regard to oneliness,
- 1:16and oneliness is like quite the word.
- 1:18And it's also something that might be interesting for you to
- 1:22reflect upon the context of trust, in particular, when we
- 1:26start into our conversation, what would be the first thing
- 1:29that comes to your mind at the intersection of trust and
- 1:32loneliness? One diness.
- 1:34Sorry. Yeah, no, it's a it's a good way
- 1:37to start because loneliness and one liness are interconnected in
- 1:41a ways. Maybe that just as a quick note,
- 1:44the word 1 liness, I didn't come up with it.
- 1:47Some people think that I did. It was actually the word that
- 1:49existed before loneliness became an actual word in the English
- 1:53language around the eights. So it referred to a connection
- 1:56to something greater or an interconnectedness, I guess.
- 2:00And then people found a word for loneliness when started to live
- 2:04in modern, more modern societies at that time and so forth.
- 2:07So I think loneliness, loneliness both have in their
- 2:11own ways, something to do and very closely related to trust.
- 2:14It's probably one of the key ingredients, I want to say
- 2:18dimensions in which we can understand closeness and
- 2:22intimacy and connection in a deeper level, not only between
- 2:27each other or other, you know, me and another human being or
- 2:31another being, but also trust in terms of trusting into
- 2:35organizations and institutions and larger systems and then
- 2:38trust to yourself on that other side of the spectrum.
- 2:42So I think there's a, there's a spectrum obviously of, of trust
- 2:45and how it relates to our relationships and ways that we
- 2:49feel connected or disconnected. And one might say it's quite
- 2:52special to be drawn to the space and also to be reflecting upon,
- 2:58you know, how to create those oneliness within organizations
- 3:02or oneself. Could you explain a bit of what
- 3:05drew you exactly to that area and why now?
- 3:09Yeah, that's a great question the why now.
- 3:12So I spent some time in in community building or really
- 3:20accidentally I guess found myself in it.
- 3:22That's also where we met with House of Beautiful business.
- 3:25I didn't know that there was such a thing as community
- 3:28building or what it really meant at when I joined that
- 3:33organization quite at the beginning of of it and stayed
- 3:36for five years. I guess I developed a love not
- 3:39only for creating spaces for others and, and sort of being
- 3:42part of this movement of reimagining work in business,
- 3:45but also I really appreciated the closeness to other people
- 3:51and to be more in touch with people's inner lives, I want to
- 3:56say, and their truths that they carry and that they felt
- 3:59compelled to share not only with me, but with each other and
- 4:02within that community. So I became really curious about
- 4:05what what is it that draws people to a place like the
- 4:09house, but also other types of communities and gatherings and
- 4:12especially after the pandemic, which statistics and numbers
- 4:16will will prove as well. This hunger almost for
- 4:20connecting and reconnecting on a deeper level was pretty
- 4:23apparent. So to me, there was something
- 4:25about looking on the other side of community and connection and
- 4:29into loneliness and wondering whether there is something
- 4:32between loneliness as an individual and personal
- 4:35experience that I have also experienced in many different
- 4:38ways and am still and loneliness as a structural systemic
- 4:42phenomenon. Something that is caused, cause
- 4:45and effect both of the way that we live, the way that we relate
- 4:49to one another, the way that we build technology, that we use it
- 4:51and so forth. And that relates to the why now,
- 4:54right? Looking at the world and seeing
- 4:56at that time, like about 2-3 years ago maybe how we've
- 5:01already at that point been growing, growing apart from one
- 5:05another, the ways that we engage with our phones as our closest
- 5:10companions. And now of course, it's AI or
- 5:13it's becoming AI and so forth, right?
- 5:16So some of these drivers, I guess, of our modern lifestyle
- 5:20and societies and polarization and so forth, also led me to
- 5:26saying, OK, I need to. There seems to be something
- 5:29urgent about looking more deeply into loneliness beyond beyond
- 5:33looking at it as a health problem, which it is, but beyond
- 5:36that even. You've now touched upon the
- 5:39drivers that made you also look into the topic, but like from a
- 5:44broader perspective, you've mentioned the phones, you've
- 5:48mentioned also AI. Could you dive a bit further
- 5:52into these aspects that what do you see currently and how are
- 5:57they potentially interrelated? Yes, so technology is a big one,
- 6:01of course. I think that's what most people
- 6:04can relate to that I've been in touch with that I bring
- 6:07together. They're like, Oh yeah, I, I get
- 6:08it. Like there's a loneliness
- 6:09because you kind of have the idea that you have your phone
- 6:13and, and through the phone as a medium, you feel like you have
- 6:16access to a lot of people and, and connection.
- 6:20And the way that we connect now through social media, through
- 6:23messaging and so forth feels real enough.
- 6:28And at the same time, it is kind of an illusion.
- 6:30So there's this wonderful term called artificial intimacy that
- 6:34was coined by the MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle, who's
- 6:38been doing a lot of research on the relationship between humans
- 6:41and machines since since many, many years.
- 6:43And she calls this illusion almost right, this this
- 6:48disillusion of being close and being related to others through
- 6:53technology and through particularly our phones and
- 6:56other devices as something that is not quite human enough.
- 7:00But it, it feels as if it is real and intimate enough, right?
- 7:05So it gives us an, the idea of feeling connected, like not
- 7:09alone, not lonely and having always an option, I guess to
- 7:14reach out to someone or get a quick dopamine hit from a like a
- 7:17share or quick message or something like that.
- 7:20And it really speaks to something deeper.
- 7:22I I think that is that we've almost gotten used to the way of
- 7:27feeling perpetually under nurtured in connection, right
- 7:32and in one leanness, perhaps because we are, we've grown to
- 7:36be OK now with that level of stimulation almost and this very
- 7:41flattened way of feeling connected, often one sided, not
- 7:45necessarily reciprocal, not necessarily profound and
- 7:47complex, certainly not messy as human relationships are.
- 7:52So it has the effect on the other end of us humans feeling
- 7:57more, more and more drawn to more convenient ways of
- 8:00connecting and being relationship, right.
- 8:02If something doesn't work for us, then we ghost, we leave.
- 8:07We, we end the relationship, we end the conversation, we drop
- 8:10out, we go silent, we go mute. We, we, we, we are losing in a
- 8:16way, this capacity, I think, to be with paradox and complexity
- 8:21and messiness and stay with the trouble, stay with the yeah,
- 8:25with, with everything that really makes us or makes our
- 8:28relationships human. And that, paradoxically or not,
- 8:32has made us feel more lonely than perhaps without this, this
- 8:36technology or this way of interacting.
- 8:38On the other hand, of course, technology has offered a lot of
- 8:42beautiful ways, right, for us to connect right now in many
- 8:45different ways, how we can get in touch with people all around
- 8:48the world. But what I'm speaking to, or
- 8:50what this idea of artificial intimacy and this flattened
- 8:54weight of connecting and, and feeling connected speaks to is,
- 8:58is something, something else perhaps, and is an effect of the
- 9:01systems that we have been creating and, and in the way
- 9:05that we have. And this is another part of it,
- 9:07right? Become addicted almost to to
- 9:10that feeling into those technologies and now AI is a
- 9:15whole new level of providing the sense of artificial intimacy, of
- 9:19course. What you just like reflected
- 9:21upon house like many different levels and I'm so curious about
- 9:26their interwoveness because you've started with the self,
- 9:30you've like expanded into the organizational structure and
- 9:34technology can be a vehicle to create or also counter like
- 9:40digital connection and there's then human connection and
- 9:44digital connection. Is there a difference and in
- 9:48what way could both of them feel?
- 9:52Very interesting. Is there a difference?
- 9:55Yes and no, probably I do still see technology, but that's
- 10:00that's where it gets really tricky with AII think.
- 10:02But like I do still see technology and like the
- 10:05platforms and the the ways the devices as as a medium in a way,
- 10:10it's still me talking to you or me talking to another, hopefully
- 10:13to another person with a heart and a soul and a spirit and a
- 10:18body. So that is human connection
- 10:20through a digital device, a medium.
- 10:24But that's just a theory, I guess, because it does feel
- 10:27different, right? Just on a very, very, very
- 10:30simplified way to look at it of how we engage with one another.
- 10:34If we are face to face, body to body and in one room together
- 10:39versus behind two screens and communicating over text, it is a
- 10:45different way of interacting in the way that we've become, as I
- 10:49said, so used to. It is, is the tricky part.
- 10:52I think sometimes we can forget perhaps that there is a real
- 10:55human being behind that screen, which is not so easy to to
- 10:59forget if you're actually facing them and their emotions and you
- 11:03pick up the energy right and the mood almost or the body language
- 11:07there. There's so much to pick up on,
- 11:09on, on and that reciprocates in a way.
- 11:12So I think for both, whether it's mediated through a digital
- 11:16device or human, human to human, I think we do need the full
- 11:20capacity of what it means to connect, which is not just the
- 11:24positive and joyful pieces of communication and resonance and
- 11:28vibing with one another and reacting to one another and
- 11:30celebrating. But it's also kind of the
- 11:33ability to read beneath what is being said, to listen more
- 11:37deeply to, yeah, read body language, not say anything, to
- 11:42bear silence. Yeah.
- 11:45To even learn how to resolve conflict in an, in a nonviolent
- 11:48way, to sit with tension, sit with paradox, learn how to
- 11:52repair, learn to apologize and forgive.
- 11:54So I think those are a lot of these are a lot of capacities I
- 11:58think that I needed coming back to trust, right, in order to
- 12:01cultivate trust on an ongoing way.
- 12:04And that is important for, for either of these types of
- 12:08connection and more. So I think in a way for digital
- 12:12connection or digital ways of of being in touch because of again
- 12:16because of the systems that we've created, the platforms
- 12:19that we engage on the rules that apply on these platforms.
- 12:22Who's who's? Governing them, who's who has
- 12:24the power over these platforms and of course they're our our
- 12:28individual powers are a limited versus making decisions on
- 12:33Monica's terms as an individual to to another human being.
- 12:37And if you now on the one hand side have those digital
- 12:40platforms and you specifically also reflecting upon the
- 12:45capacity that's that we as like individuals need to create in
- 12:50the context of communities. Having the platforms having like
- 12:54the capacity movement or looking into that, how do we design for
- 12:58communities that are intimate and that belonging is elected
- 13:03into rather than having this sort of on the other side
- 13:07transactional relationship that could arise easily?
- 13:11Yeah, I hope that and I'm seeing it here and there that this idea
- 13:17of community, which is also very much saturated, overly saturated
- 13:23and overly used word and term at this point, right.
- 13:25Everything is community now that the next stage of community in a
- 13:29way comes back to maybe its origin again or more closely
- 13:33towards origin, which was always the idea of a Commons, more like
- 13:37a an idea of having a thinking of a space, right?
- 13:40Thinking of a space where people can come in and it's accessible
- 13:44and it doesn't it's not commodified, It's not it not it
- 13:47doesn't necessarily cost something.
- 13:48It's not a membership. So that's another other, you
- 13:51know, area that we could go in kind of this, the commercial
- 13:53aspect of how spaces, especially digital ones and beyond are
- 13:58governed and therefore called a community and who has access to
- 14:02them, who doesn't and how we relate in there.
- 14:05Because community to me is not sameness, right?
- 14:08It's not necessarily just meeting like minded people.
- 14:10And at the same time, of course, there's necessity for such
- 14:13spaces, right, Safer spaces for certain groups, especially those
- 14:17who've been historically marginalized and those who do
- 14:20not feel safe in, in the company of dominant groups that that are
- 14:24usually there or louder or neuro divergent groups like there,
- 14:28there's so many subgroups in a way that needs safer spaces.
- 14:31Yes. And I do think the idea of
- 14:34community, especially in the digital realm could be expanded
- 14:37a little bit. And I would love to see that for
- 14:39us to meet each other again through our differences as well,
- 14:43which don't necessarily have to be so apart.
- 14:46They don't have to be on one end of the spectrum and be super
- 14:50polarized. It's more about creating that
- 14:53safe, safe enough, I would say safe enough space for people to
- 14:57be yeah, to, to lean a little bit more into something unknown
- 15:02and maybe stretch themselves a little bit and say something
- 15:05that they hadn't said before and listen to one another a bit
- 15:09more. I, I think that's where I would
- 15:12love to see things moving and, and, and how I think we could
- 15:15help design spaces through technology to say like we don't
- 15:19have to become fully dependent right on these platforms or in
- 15:23the way that they have been designed very much for echo
- 15:25chambers, very much for a niche and sort of algorithm, algorithm
- 15:30fed content and world views. But we can almost break it open
- 15:35again and meet each other in a different way while using the
- 15:39technology for it's good, but meet each other differently and
- 15:42allow for a broader, more pluralistic way of dialogue,
- 15:46conversation and listening, which is part of it.
- 15:48When we talk about AI specifically, the parts around
- 15:54being particular and like distinct in the way that we
- 15:59express ourselves specifically as a brand, but then also as an
- 16:02individual somewhat counters sometimes the impression that
- 16:06you get when you use AI that contents get more the same.
- 16:11So you basically do have, from a tech perspective, kind of two
- 16:15parlors that somewhat don't fit together.
- 16:18And then again, you describe that meeting each other in the
- 16:22space of creating a mutual understanding while reflecting
- 16:26upon or respecting the differences that one brings to
- 16:30that space might not fit together.
- 16:33How do you see that? Yeah, maybe this is something to
- 16:37explore and that is something to experiment with.
- 16:39I think it's time for maybe different ways how we make
- 16:44spaces, how we use spaces and whom we allow to hold spaces as
- 16:49well. I think this is also a power
- 16:50question, right? Big one, Like who holds these
- 16:53spaces? And does it always have to be 1
- 16:55entity? Does it always have to be one
- 16:57person? Can we come back to a different
- 16:59way of a more of a collective? Like what is a collective space?
- 17:03This is a public space on the Internet, a digital public
- 17:05space. How does that even work so that
- 17:08we don't necessarily fall back onto the this either or way or
- 17:12the known way of having done things in the way that we know
- 17:15them. And that requires, yeah, maybe
- 17:18different actors or different people to try and come together
- 17:22and feel also empowered in a way to, to do so and to not wait I
- 17:27guess for whoever to, to come with a, a solution again.
- 17:32And I guess one of the intriguing parts for me
- 17:34particular is also like somewhat somewhat called emotional fabric
- 17:40that you can bring into those spaces that rely on a Gray space
- 17:45that you can like interrelate or also meet each other while at
- 17:50the same time respecting the context that you're in or the
- 17:54tech environment that you use in order for us to also meet like
- 17:58virtually. And one of the most crucial
- 18:01aspects currently is how much trust do I bring the tech space
- 18:05or the space that we meet in order to have the sense of
- 18:10emotional fabric that each of us like as a person brings to this
- 18:14environment. And when you also like in your
- 18:17work and in regards of the encounters with you, with your
- 18:21projects or also with your, I now don't want to say
- 18:24communities, but somewhat also with people that you engage with
- 18:28is like on the ground and in person spaces.
- 18:31So how do you see it differently in in person spaces?
- 18:36The dynamics in contrast, are also reflecting upon digital
- 18:41environments that you've been part of.
- 18:43Yeah. I think people, I mean, I might
- 18:46be biased, but people are so hungry for in person gatherings,
- 18:51They just want to be there together with others.
- 18:54And at the same time, we almost have to learn how to do that
- 18:58again, like in a non cringe way, in a non, in a, in a way that
- 19:04doesn't feel too risky, in a way that we will allow ourselves to
- 19:08feel also the the awkwardness that is always there in the
- 19:10moment and then drop in. And this is in a way, what I'm,
- 19:14you know, part of my work is to invite people again into very,
- 19:19very low key and still somewhat deep spaces in person in order
- 19:24to feel how it feels. How does it feel to be with
- 19:28strangers, you know, in, in person, in a, in a space
- 19:33together with different emotional fabrics, with
- 19:36different capacities, with different heritage and cultures
- 19:38and backgrounds and so forth. And I think that's something
- 19:41that we cannot theorize about. And it's, there are limits to
- 19:44experiencing that digitally. So the digital piece is
- 19:47important in terms of reminding people and kind of almost laying
- 19:52the the framework, but then also nudging them to go out into the
- 19:56real world that we'd need both, both so, so much.
- 20:00And I think they can complement each other.
- 20:02How does it feel for you? For me, it's one of the most
- 20:06nourishing, nourishing things for me personally, which is also
- 20:12part of why why I'm doing this. I think I, I have a, it is very,
- 20:18it feels very natural to me. It feels very natural and not
- 20:23forced at all. And there is no force really.
- 20:26And there's a trust actually more and more so from when I
- 20:30started, I was like, I remember you start something.
- 20:34It's the first time you are naturally more a control freak.
- 20:37You know, you're trying to plan everything, script everything
- 20:39out. It's kind of like from this
- 20:41anxiety space you're acting from that it's like, I hope nothing
- 20:44goes wrong. And then of course, as you do
- 20:49this more often, you play, you experiment, you learn also to
- 20:53trust not only yourself, but actually you trust in something
- 20:56that will emerge in the collective in that moment,
- 20:59during that time that will that will pass, you know, afterwards,
- 21:03but that is present. So trusting in that present
- 21:06moment is something that I've, I am still learning.
- 21:09So it feels like that and it also feels very encouraging and
- 21:14hopeful in a way, I don't know, hope making.
- 21:16And yeah, not in a naive kind of, oh, we're, you know, we're
- 21:19going to be fine. The, the world is beautiful, but
- 21:22it's, it's kind of like, yes, the world is beautiful and
- 21:24humans are capable of, of beautiful things.
- 21:27And there is a lot of suffering and there is a lot of injustice
- 21:31and there is a lot of heaviness And people are struggling a lot
- 21:34right now with different, you know, and, and different levels
- 21:39and different circumstances. And you can feel that, that
- 21:42there's so much that we can give to 1 another if we allow
- 21:46ourselves to, to open a little bit and to come a little bit
- 21:51more closer to one another than we we perhaps want to.
- 21:54And if you now look into the corporate world and into like
- 21:59the way that organizations are structured, from the work that
- 22:03you do, from looking into the creation of oneliness and like
- 22:08also building trustworthy ecosystems in some way, what do
- 22:12you think like leaders can learn from your work?
- 22:16Yeah, I think first of all, I, I think, I mean, I've had the
- 22:19privilege to meet a lot of leaders who already do what I'm
- 22:22going to say, which is to, to inquire something within them,
- 22:26right? To look a bit more deeply into
- 22:28who am I? Who am I as a leader?
- 22:31What does leadership mean to me? And, and how does this not only
- 22:35come to the output and, and of course the results and
- 22:40everything that, that needs to happen, but beyond that, what is
- 22:44it that I, what is it that I can give and that I'm willing to
- 22:48give even if I don't get something in return?
- 22:50And what is it that I can learn, right.
- 22:53So I've met a lot of people throughout my life and career
- 22:56who already do that and who question themselves and, and who
- 23:01encourage one another. And I think a, a specific thing
- 23:06perhaps that leaders could learn from my work, I think it's not
- 23:10to be afraid of, of opening conversations and spaces for
- 23:16more difficult emotions and more difficult topics.
- 23:19It's always, I feel easier, right to, to talk about what's
- 23:22going well and what's to improve and what's to optimize and how
- 23:26do we solve this? How do we get this number up?
- 23:29Or like, how do we? So I think that's always easier
- 23:32than just saying what else is there?
- 23:34And is there something that you know isn't explicitly being
- 23:37mentioned, but is something that maybe hinders the person or the
- 23:43team to truly flourish? And it always comes back to
- 23:47relationships, always comes back to the quality of relationships,
- 23:50whether that's the relationship to yourself, to others within
- 23:53the colleagues, or to the organization as a whole.
- 23:56And I think to begin conversations that dig a little
- 24:00bit more deeply into that aspect that begins perhaps with
- 24:04something very personal, but then transcends to something
- 24:07organizational, something societal could be, could be
- 24:09really revealing and surprisingly, surprisingly
- 24:13curious and, and bring new aspects and new ways of seeing
- 24:17and looking and understanding. And also in terms of of course,
- 24:20the way of how you feel connected to one another and to
- 24:24the, the level of trust or the level of sense of sense of
- 24:27belonging. That is not like an aspirational
- 24:30status, right? It's not an ideal, but it's,
- 24:32it's a practice. I think all of that I think of
- 24:35as a practice of, OK, how do I listen more closely?
- 24:39How do I ask another question that can dive?
- 24:41How do I bring people together to be more honest with one
- 24:44another and and share something truthful?
- 24:47So yeah. Have you seen leaders,
- 24:50colleagues or like people in your environment leveraging
- 24:55technological infrastructures or tools in order to create that
- 25:00sense of belonging or caring relationships that are needed in
- 25:05order to form those interactions?
- 25:08Definitely. I mean, there's so much I feel
- 25:10that people are doing right from leveraging the tools exactly and
- 25:15the ways of gathering, whether it's on Zoom or like on Slack
- 25:20and even a small message, right? Like everything that feels
- 25:23intentional in or, or regular monthly meet up or, or something
- 25:28like this or a different kind of office hour or the idea of
- 25:32right, having a kitchen, but as a digital sort of as a digital
- 25:34form of a kitchen where you usually would come together to
- 25:37chat and to to banter or gossip, even or written pieces, right,
- 25:41like content pieces or newsletters or ways how you can
- 25:45again, videos or audios, different formats.
- 25:48I guess that's where technology is so great at.
- 25:50It's like we have different formats and how we engage and
- 25:52how people can weigh in without having to raise their voice
- 25:57necessarily or having to know how to how or feel safe enough
- 26:02to, to do things. So yes, I, I think I have, I am
- 26:05seeing a lot of different ways how people come together in that
- 26:08way through trying to be creative.
- 26:10I think to see how a topic right around creativity, around
- 26:15technology, something like that could generate different kinds
- 26:18of conversations. So I don't think that there is
- 26:20necessarily a recipe that is like this is the
- 26:23one-size-fits-all kind of thing. But I do think there there are a
- 26:27lot of simple ways to try this. And I think consistency is key,
- 26:31right. Establishing a format,
- 26:32establishing a space and being patient with that, especially on
- 26:36often this online, it's like it's so easy to launch things.
- 26:39So you just launch 500 things and then you're like what, you
- 26:41know, what are we going to do with that?
- 26:43So consistency and then reducing it down and less is more and
- 26:47coming back to the quality I think of what you want to.
- 26:50Yeah, what you want to cultivate in your organization?
- 26:53One of the topics that like organizations, communities, we
- 26:57as humans look into is the way that we experience truth given
- 27:03also current media developments, giving current, you know, larger
- 27:09political landscape. But then again, also and like
- 27:12meeting each other of like, how do you create the sense of
- 27:15mutual trust that that I can rely on on what you say is true?
- 27:19And then what I see is that technology in a sense is on one
- 27:24hand side like an infrastructure that can help enable or bridge
- 27:29of holding like multiple troops troops.
- 27:31But then again, what we see is that like collective trust at
- 27:36the same time is currently collapsing.
- 27:38Do you think that there is like an interrelation between both of
- 27:41those approaches And in your experience, in your work and in
- 27:46the context that you create, how do you manage and foster it so
- 27:51it stays? Yeah, there's definitely a
- 27:53relation thing. If I look at the world right now
- 27:56and I'm like, well, I'm not. So I mean, I am surprised, but
- 28:00I'm also not surprised in a way of how our collective trust is
- 28:03declining. It's kind of like, yeah, well,
- 28:06what do we expect? You mentioned media, right?
- 28:09Misinformation, disinformation again, bring in AI.
- 28:12Now the power of of some of these technologies go beyond, I
- 28:16think what we beyond the, the human capacity to follow and,
- 28:20and and follow the pace of, in the severity of, of some of
- 28:25these yeah, technologies. So I'm not, so I am surprised
- 28:29but not shocked, you know, And I think it comes back to me, it
- 28:33comes back to the way in which we have faith in one another and
- 28:37the way that we are able to trust each other.
- 28:40And I think that's obviously where I start my work.
- 28:44But also what I believe is, is underrated probably as, or
- 28:50overlooked often because it's easy to blame institutions is
- 28:55easy to blame business organizations or the leaders or
- 28:59the, you know, the, the presidents and the powerful
- 29:03people in in this world. And yes, of course they hold,
- 29:06they were like just generally Speaking, of course, they hold a
- 29:09lot of power and influence and responsibility.
- 29:13And at the same time, in order to, I think cultivate a certain
- 29:16fabric of trust and trustworthiness again, we can
- 29:20all start, we need all to start with ourselves and each other.
- 29:24So, and I think trust is something that I'm no expert in
- 29:28that, but what I'm seeing and experiencing myself is like,
- 29:30trust is something that that kind of gets built over time and
- 29:34then it gets broken and I can't rebuild again.
- 29:36It's kind of this, if it's, if it stays, it's great, right?
- 29:39But it doesn't necessarily stay in the same density or
- 29:42intensity, city or, or level. It's not a static thing, is what
- 29:45I'm trying to say. It is again, something that
- 29:47needs to be practiced. And it comes with a leap of
- 29:50faith. I really like this idea of, of
- 29:52having faith, which the Turkish journalist Ajit Imakran speaks a
- 29:58lot about and, and wrote about in in her book.
- 30:01And I, I think there is something about faith that, you
- 30:05know, not in a religious sense and not necessarily in a
- 30:08spiritual sense, but having this leap and giving trust is
- 30:12something that is inherently part of then almost training
- 30:16that muscle to, to trust somebody else.
- 30:18Like, I don't know if there, there's such a thing as, you
- 30:21know, coming up with a long list of boxes to check in order to
- 30:25then say, OK, now I can trust this person to do XYZ.
- 30:28Like I, I will have to, you know, give that person trust my
- 30:31trust to do something or to follow through or to be trusted
- 30:35with an information or, or something that I share with them
- 30:37and then experience how it actually is.
- 30:40And yes, I might be disappointed or my trust might be misused,
- 30:43but there's also 50% of the chance that it might not right
- 30:47that it will be honored. So trust is, is a really tricky
- 30:52thing. But I think in, in the smallest
- 30:54ways, we can make small but positive experiences or try to
- 30:58make experiences in general, whether positive or negative or
- 31:00somewhere on the spectrum in trusting one another.
- 31:03Like and beginning to do that more, not with only with the
- 31:06people that we know, but also with strangers or neighbors or
- 31:09people who are just in our life and in our communities in our
- 31:12world. And that's in a way what I'm
- 31:14trying to do as well with my work and the gatherings that I
- 31:18organize. Of course there's a certain
- 31:20container then Lava City, but yeah, you never know who shows
- 31:24up and with what kind of inner life and instead of so people to
- 31:29trust and again comes back to consistency and and
- 31:32vulnerability as well. With the podcast that you're
- 31:34like launching and also like diving into the topic.
- 31:37So I'm super intrigued of following along and like also
- 31:41see the reflection in regards of loneliness as community building
- 31:45and where this is all going to be headed.
- 31:47And as we come to a close, those of this podcast episode and what
- 31:52I think is like a truly valuable conversation.
- 31:55Thank you for sharing all of your expertise and insights.
- 31:59I want to share some in between moments with you.
- 32:02These are moments of where I ask my guests to answer like from
- 32:08their intuition of what comes to their mind first.
- 32:12And one of the answers that I would love to hear from you is
- 32:15in regards to oneliness. What does oneliness feel like
- 32:19for you? Oneliness feels like a living.
- 32:24A living motion. Yeah, as something that is
- 32:26always in motion and goes into different directions.
- 32:29Yeah, I think it's a movement. According to you and your work
- 32:33and what you see, what does community currently need?
- 32:36Community needs embracing difference.
- 32:39And what should technology do? Technology, in its best case,
- 32:43should help us, yeah, help us inquire a little bit more deeply
- 32:47what it means to be human and what kind of human we want to
- 32:52be. And ending with trust and what
- 32:55trust is for you. Trust is having faith and giving
- 32:59without without expecting to receive something.
- 33:03Back. What a perfect end for like this
- 33:06inspirational conversation. Thank you so much, Monica, for
- 33:10joining me, joining us on this episode.
- 33:12Yes. Wonderful.
- 33:13Thank you so much. Really appreciate being here.
- 33:16Very good.