Think of how many friends you have on Facebook and how many followers you have on Twitter. Now, think of the people in those lists that you actually know. Going even farther, how many of those people that you know would you spend a Saturday afternoon with? And going even farther still, how many of those people could you call at 4 a.m. and know that they would pick up?

In a world of unprecedented interconnectivity, we’ve become a nation of Eleanor Rigbys with hundreds – sometimes thousands – of superficial connections.

It seems like having 3,430 Facebook friends would mean that you would have 3,430 options for a fun-filled night on the town. But all too often we find ourselves watching YouTube videos on repeat and scrolling endlessly through our favorite blogs.

A 2010 study performed by the UCLA Loneliness Scale revealed that 35 percent of adults now classify as chronically lonely – up 10 percent from 2000. This trend was noticed in 1998 in a Carnegie Mellon study that showed increased Internet usage was linked to a higher rate of loneliness. This study is particularly terrifying for Communications majors, as the study was conducted on undergraduate journalism students.

[quote]In a world of unprecedented interconnectivity, we’ve become a nation of Eleanor Rigbys with hundreds – sometimes thousands – of superficial connections.[/quote]

But why does more Internet usage equate to increased loneliness? Perhaps it’s easier to use your iPhone and FaceTime someone rather than sitting down for coffee with them. But when you hang up the phone, you’re alone. Technology simply presents more convenience for contacting others rather than going to see them.

Another disturbing trend is that we’ve begun to focus on how many friends we’ve got instead of the quality of friends we have. In 1985, only 10 percent of people said they felt they had no confidant to share inside information with. By 2004, 25 percent of people felt they had absolutely no one to talk to, while 20 percent felt as though they had only one good friend.

With the research mounting against social networking alone, perhaps its time to unplug and get in contact the old fashioned way. When you add people to your Google+ circle, it even provides a warning that you should only “your real friends – the ones you feel comfortable sharing private details with.” That simplistic phrase suggests we’ve begun to become obsessed with how many friends we’ve got instead of how close we are with people.

Now, granted, being alone is not a bad thing. We need that time to unwind and focus on our own issues. Solitary moments are rare and much valued. But in the age of tweeting about our breakfasts and posting photos of last night’s party, it seems as though we are reaching out for more and more connections when we should be working on the ones we’ve got.