Jonny Sun: You are not alone in your loneliness
Jonny Sun wears many hats, creating work across multiple fields and modes that speaks to the increasingly expansive society in which we live. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
accidentally with an "m,"
with a mission to study humans.
and far from home,
at a moment in my life
and started my doctoral program at MIT,
and very much like I didn't belong.
for years and years
to doing this more and more.
the internet can feel like a lonely place.
but no one's ever listening.
in speaking out to the void.
my feelings with the void,
isn't this endless lonely expanse at all,
all sorts of other people,
and also wanting to be heard.
that have come from social media.
is to feel so much sadness
that so many of my closest friends
originally online.
there's this confessional nature
in this personal, intimate diary
everyone in the world to read it.
from perspectives from people
different from ourselves,
that I was following
and going to therapy
that they often do
around mental health was normalized,
that going to therapy was something
to be talking about all these topics
think that it is a big, scary thing
already perfectly and fully formed.
actually a great place to not know,
treat that with excitement,
important about sharing your imperfections
and your vulnerabilities
that they feel sad or afraid
this comfort of being vulnerable
can share with each other.
externalizing the internal,
feelings that I don't have words for,
putting words to them,
find words to find their feelings as well.
in putting all these things
into these smaller pieces,
I think they're more fun.
see our shared humanness.
of a short story,
a cute book of illustrations, for example.
that I'll throw on the internet.
I posted this app idea
and you have to get out of the house
in the audience,
I feel anxious about sending an email.
I promise I'm trying my best!"
dead or alive, I would.
I post things like these online,
little gatherings can be quite meaningful.
from architecture school
have you already had
my own friends who had moved away
and different countries, even,
for me to keep in touch with them.
and sharing their own experiences.
they had a falling out with.
who had passed away
about their friends from school
started happening.
and share their own experiences
to reach out to that friend
that they had a falling out with.
this little tiny microcommunity.
microcommunities can form.
of different creatures
the muck of the internet,
in the reading the replies
a reply that is particularly kind
in going to follow someone
already follow you back.
that you know in real life
and the things that they write
of the same interests as they do,
closer together to you.
in a strange place,
because as we all know,
doesn't feel like this.
where we misunderstand each other,
with each other,
and screaming and yelling and shouting,
there's too much of everything.
the bad parts with the good,
that we use to inhabit these online spaces
either ignorantly or willfully
to propagate misinformation,
and the violence that comes from it,
none of our current platforms
to address and to fix that.
probably unfortunately,
as many others are,
like that's where all the people are.
of human connection in times like these.
are not superfluous.
from the world at all,
why we come to these spaces.
and they affirm and they give us life.
temporary sanctuaries
as alone as we think we are.
and everyone's sad
this inflatable bouncey castle
bouncy castle in this case
and our connections to other people.
and hopeless about the world,
logging on to social media
at the end of the world."
the void responding,
who started talking to each other,
tiny community formed.
to hold on to is other people.
made up of small moments,
tiny sliver of light
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jonny Sun - Screenwriter, author, artistJonny Sun wears many hats, creating work across multiple fields and modes that speaks to the increasingly expansive society in which we live.
Why you should listen
Jonny Sun never felt that the multi-hyphenate description of screenwriter/humorist/author/artist/researcher/technologist made much sense. He is a writer for the Netflix original series BoJack Horseman and is currently writing the screenplay for an original idea with Fox Family and Chernin Entertainment. He also wrote and illustrated the best-selling graphic novel Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too, illustrated Lin-Manuel Miranda's GMorning, Gnight! and regularly writes online.
Sun is currently pursuing a PhD at MIT, where he's studying social media communities and making art about artificial intelligence with the metaLAB at Harvard. He helped develop The Laughing Room, a self-aware sitcom set that plays a laugh track based on what participants say in the room. His work explores how technology interfaces with our lived, human experiences, believing that this critical eye on technology is essential to the stories we tell about contemporary life.
Sun's work comes from deeply personal places, asking: "Does anyone else feel this way too?" He seeks to feel less alone in the world and to try to help others feel less alone, too -- by making things that connect to people, and then connect people; by making work that helps people feel seen and find each other.
Jonny Sun | Speaker | TED.com