Alone Together

There is a degree of irony in that most people who have watched and loved Maniac on Netflix in the last few weeks, have done so alone. I did... all 10 episodes in the course of single weekend.

In Maniac, Annie and Owen, struggling with brokenness in their lives, seek the healing promise of a groundbreaking new drug that will help them forget and confront their mental and emotional demons. Three littles pills to replace all therapy sessions!

Maniac is a trippy mix of Twin Peaks, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Black Mirror in a Blade Runner world of constant advertising. There is no pinning this series down to a single archetype.

There is a beautiful theme though of discovering the root cause of our emotional pain and learning to break away from the malaise created by living, what Sherry Turkle called, Alone Together:

Technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities. And as it turns out, we are very vulnerable indeed. We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Digital connections and the sociable robot may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. Our networked life allows us to hide from each other, even as we are tethered to each other."

If a digital tether is all that is between us, are we really together? No amount of therapy; no series of pills combined with microwaves pointed at the hypothalamus; not even another 100 followers on our social media channels can replace the connection and companionship of one true friend. It is what Annie and Owen were searching for in Maniac. It is what drives our digital connections. But technology is no proxy for human connection.

So, give Maniac a watch (Watch it with someone). Give Alone Together a read (Read it with someone). Then, answer this question:

If I was placed in a mental institution by my family against my will, would you be the kind of friend who would come and break me out? OR, would you be the kind of friend who would wait for me to write a post about it?