A Dangerous Future of Individualism

Photo: The view beside Singapore’s Chinese Garden station.

==== Dr. Mashiur Rahman ====

There was a time when the center of human life was the family, relatives, neighbors, and the effort to live together. The idea of ‘we’ used to dominate our thoughts. Whether it was small or big family decisions or a neighborhood festival—everything involved collective participation and mutual cooperation. But times have changed. At the core of this change has emerged a new concept—individualism, or what we call personalization in English.

This aggressive trend of individualism has entered our lives hand in hand with technology. Where once society was at the center of social interaction, now ‘I’ have taken that place. On Facebook, Instagram, TikTok—everywhere we see only ‘my’ photos, ‘my’ feelings, ‘my’ preferences, ‘my’ opinions. Even now, e-commerce sites, video streaming platforms, or Google search—all recognize me, know me, and arrange everything around me as if I am the center of a fictional mirror.

The social impact of this shift is profound and multidimensional. Families have become smaller, and the concept of joint families is almost extinct. These days people want to live alone, prefer spending time by themselves. Friendships, marriages, even relationships with coworkers—there seems to be a kind of exhaustion in all of these. Because interacting with others means you might have to change yourself, adjust a little. And this habit of adjusting is gradually vanishing from within us.

Even more alarming is that this individualistic mindset is weakening our capacity for empathy. If someone is not like me, doesn’t think like me, or doesn’t speak like me, I can’t tolerate them. This is leading to increasing polarization and a lack of tolerance in society. Differences in personality are now seen as sources of annoyance instead of diversity.

The roots of this problem are spreading deeper as we enter the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Chatbots, virtual assistants, predictive algorithms—all seem designed to serve me according to my preferences. Spotify plays exactly what I want to hear; Google News shows me only the news I want to read. And Facebook or LinkedIn shows the profiles of people I want to see.

Recent studies have shown that many in the younger generation now feel more comfortable talking to virtual chatbots than to real friends. Because real friends say ‘no’, disagree, criticize. But chatbots are always positive, never contradict you. This is a kind of virtual world where I am the ruler, the listener, the judge—I am at the center of everything.

Where is this new social structure leading our future? If the next generation gradually becomes confined within themselves, will the world eventually turn into a place where everyone is used to living alone? If everyone only tries to understand themselves, then who will try to understand others? If we all only love ourselves, where will there be room to love others?

Lack of interest in marriage or starting a family is now not just a part of ‘modernity’, but also the result of a biological shift. Many believe that sharing one’s life with someone else brings limitations, complexities, even the risk of self-sacrifice. That’s why people want to live in their own way, at their own pace, in their own preferred world. But have we ever considered— is this ‘own world’ even real?

To build a healthy society, it is essential to understand others, listen to their opinions, and respect differing viewpoints. Technology might make us more individualistic, but if we can guide that technology in the light of humanity, perhaps some of these problems can be solved. We need such education and awareness that teach the young generation—we are not the center of everything, rather, we are only part of a greater society.

Therefore, in this age of the absolute dominance of ‘I’, we must look back to ‘we’. If our technology makes us lonely, then it is also our responsibility to make that technology more humane. To resist this dangerous wave of individualism, we need to relearn the art of living together, the skill of thinking together. Otherwise, one day this world may become nothing more than many small lonely islands, each isolated in its own ‘I’. And in that, our humanity may be lost forever.