{"id":15905,"date":"2026-02-26T16:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultimabozza.it\/the-extinction-of-good-morning-why-we-stopped-looking-at-each-others-faces-and-how-to-start-again\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:43:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:43:03","slug":"the-extinction-of-good-morning-why-we-stopped-looking-at-each-others-faces-and-how-to-start-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultimabozza.it\/en\/the-extinction-of-good-morning-why-we-stopped-looking-at-each-others-faces-and-how-to-start-again\/","title":{"rendered":"The extinction of “Good Morning”: why we stopped looking at each other’s faces (and how to start again)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is a gesture we all perform, dozens of times a day, without even paying attention to it: the “technology shield.” On the bus, in line at the post office, even in the elevator with the landing neighbor. The hand runs to the phone and we raise a drawbridge, between the us and the others. <\/p>\n\n

Yet it is precisely in those brief, seemingly useless exchanges with those we do not know that the heart muscle of our civilized coexistence resides.<\/p>\n\n

The dictatorship of silence<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

It’s not just a nostalgic feeling. Experts speak of a real“global relational recession<\/strong>,” as Viv Groskop explains<\/a> in the Guardian<\/em><\/strong>. Psychologist Esther Perel<\/strong> points out how talking to strangers is a practice, a constant exercise that strengthens our social muscles. Today, however, we prefer the aseptic perfection of a touchscreen. In fast food restaurants, we order through a monitor so we don’t have to modulate our voices with a cashier; on public transportation, noise-canceling headphones scream a “don’t disturb me” even before someone opens their mouth. <\/p>\n\n

The result? A generation, Gen Z, that, according to neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath<\/strong>, is underperforming cognitively.<\/strong> Not because they lack skills, but because they lack training in the unexpected. A conversation with a stranger is an adventure without a parachute: you don’t know what the other person will say, you can’t delete or edit your message. <\/p>\n\n

The paradox of social<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Then there is a dark side to the modern attempt to recover this sociality: its showiness. But real contact does not need a camera. As Gillian Sandstrom<\/strong> of the University of Sussex suggests, we should focus on “small humanizing acts.” A comment about the train being late, a joke about the weather that sounds clich\u00e9 but is instead a bridge. These micro-moments lower society’s blood pressure and remind us that we are not alone in a sea of algorithms<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n

The risk of rejection vs. the risk of isolation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Why are we so afraid? We fear being pushy, looking crazy, or being rejected. But science (and a University of Virginia study confirms this) tells us that we are chronic pessimists: we overestimate discomfort and underestimate how much, in fact, a brief exchange can brighten the day — ours and others’. <\/p>\n\n

Of course, not everyone wants to talk and not every time is the right time. But the point is to keep the ability to do so alive. Knowing how to read a signal, a smile or a low look is part of that human code we are losing. You don’t need a quest for world peace; a “It’s cold today, isn’t it?” is enough. <\/p>\n\n

Perhaps talking to a stranger will not change our lives, but his total absence will certainly make it poorer, colder, and terribly lonelier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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