THE world of connectedness is making us come apart. You sit down on your own with your electronic device (or, if you like to read properly and enjoyably, your actual, physical newspaper) and encounter more headlines about how we’re all drifting apart from each other.

Lonely, lonely, lonely. If only we could get together and do something about it. The old are lonely because families are distant and communities lack community. The young are lonely because, instead of meeting people face to face, they interact with the world online.

Adolescence has always been a potentially lonely time because one is both more self-conscious and more open to judgment regarding clothes, hair, skin condition, musical tastes and a whole host of matters that always tempted a lad or lass to stay in their bedroom until it was all over and they could emerge as fully-fledged adults. Personally, I’m still looking forward to that day.

The advent of smartphones and similar devices has increased the temptation to stay lonely through connecting online.

Earlier this year, a study by King’s College London found that loneliness blights the lives of young adults in both urban and rural areas, and regardless of gender of socio-economic background. Last month, figures from the Office for National Statistics found that 10 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds were “always or often” lonely.

Oddly enough, this week, a report by TalkTalk claimed that half of teenagers believed social media and the internet made them less lonely. Perhaps TalkTalk would say that. They also said that it was parents who worried more about their offspring feeling alone because of technology.

Whatever the case, loneliness is becoming the biggest issue of the 21st century, apart from that other one about the planet going down the Suwannee.

Also this week, digital media website Vox had an interesting interview with Susan J Matt, of Weber State University, USA, one of the authors of a new book called Bored Lonely Angry Stupid, which examines ideas of loneliness and boredom before social media.

The authors noted that boredom was a 19th century concept. Before that, people accepted that “feelings of empty time”, as Dr Matt put it, were part of human experience. Loneliness was “solitude” and seen more positively.

In the 20th century, the advent of radio was held to alleviate aloneness. But perhaps it could be argued that it had the same effect as social media: it kept people in the house. The digital age, meanwhile, promises connection but, by and large, doesn’t deliver it in a truly satisfying way. The hope, however, keeps us connecting – rather than going out.

Dr Matt notes that reliance on electronic connection makes us less self-reliant, a quality prized by previous generations. At the same time, it promotes a narcissism that would have been frowned upon in the recent past. It encourages attention-seeking – and anger when that attention is negative.

Adolescents have always desperately wanted to be liked. Now, they desperately seek “likes”. And, actually, that applies to people of all ages who posture online. No need now to stand up in a public hall and say your piece. Just tweet it, preferably from behind a pseudonym.

Politically, we no longer gather in the public square. We revolt in the privacy of our own homes. Both John Lewis and Marks and Spencer have reported a massive decline in sales of their pitchfork and burning brand ranges.

All of which has political ramifications. Last year, bewildered by the absence of proletarian revolution despite repeated provocations, Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to alleviate loneliness and “social isolation”.

Hitherto, Tory strategy on this has been limited to encouraging more people to visit food banks or welfare interrogators. The new approach appears to involve health initiatives in England and reminding ministers to bear the issue in mind when making policy decisions.

The Scottish Government is also working on the issue, and unreliable sources tell me a new programme called “Better Together” will be launched later this year.

Ultimately, I suspect, that – like everything else – it’s a matter of finding balance. And you can only detect that yourself, ironically enough.

If you expect governments to do it for you, you’re on your own, I’m afraid.

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WHATEVER will these dastardly Russians get up to next? This week, a beluga whale turned up off the coast of Norway wearing a harness for a Gopro camera holder that was sourced to St Peterburg.

The suspicion is that it had been trained by the Russian navy to engage in spying missions. The Russians have been accused of many things in their pursuit of world domination but this was certainly a new one: bleedin’ belugas.

It’s apparently the case, though, that they’ve caught and trained the beasties for nefarious purpose. This one repeatedly approached Norwegian fishing boats with an expression on its face that said: “Can you get this ruddy thing oaf ma heid?”

The harness was tied on really tightly and, once it was removed by the fishermen, the delighted beastie gave indications that it wanted to defect.

Much paranoia surrounds Russia, but it is undoubtedly always working on ways to promote evil in the world. Intelligence sources indicate that it isn’t just belugas that they use. It’s thought that around 15 per cent of cats, dogs and budgerigars in Britain are Russian spies. If you have such a pet, I suggest you keep a close eye on it.

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THERE’S a feeling abroad that politicians are not like the rest of us, that they are not of the people.

That suspicion intensified with the sacking of Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson after he was accused of leaking details about Theresa May’s plan for the Communist Chinese to take over Britain’s phone network.

It wasn’t the sacking that intrigued me. To be quite candid with you, I don’t really keep up with politics – such a lot of nonsense. But Mr Williamson’s personality and habits set alarm bells ringing.

For a start, he kept a Mexican tarantula called Cronus in a glass box on his desk. I don’t need to tell you that Cronus was a Greek god who castrated his dad and ate his own bairns. We’ve all done it. But we don’t keep big spiders on our desks.

Also, when he was Tory whip in charge of party discipline, he said this: “I don’t very much believe in the stick, but it’s amazing what can be achieved with a sharpened carrot.” Stick? Carrot? Sharpened? What can it all mean?

Most damningly of all, he used to run a pottery firm. Honestly, where on Earth do they find such people? ***

POOR old John Lydon – Johnny Rotten as was – is finding that we all have to grow up some time and accept that loutish behaviour is not to be tolerated.

Once upon a time, he encouraged it, singing in the Sex Pistols song I’d Like To Be An Anarchist, Please: “Get pissed, destroy.” It’s true that the words of pop songs are often spurious, chosen for cheap rhyme or clumsy attempts at scansion. But the message was clear here: “Annoy the hell out of decent ratepayers!”

Now he’s one of those himself and is demanding that the police do something about local louts and vagrants who vandalised his multi-million pound home near Venice Beach, California.

He’s right to demand this. His wife is unwell and has been traumatised by bricks coming through their windows. Mr Lydon is aware that his call for police help against louts makes him part of the “establishment elite”, as he put it, but what else can you do?

My suggestion is that he should disavow publicly his previous call for punkish persons to destroy passers-by and acknowledge that the Queen is indeed a human being. Then he should be given a knighthood for services to contrition.