The Second Epidemic: Social Isolation and its Effects
BY OLIVIA HU '22
"Loneliness is a discrepancy between what you want and what you have [in your relationships].” - Stephanie Cacioppo, neuroscientist at UChicago
As we round the corner on a new year and the ninth month mark of the coronavirus pandemic, quarantine becomes a heavier burden than ever before, restricting us from our traditional holiday celebrations and New Year festivities. Since the beginning of the pandemic, American adults living alone (around 28% of all households) have been deprived of physical connection. National unemployment rates have climbed as high as 16%, leaving over 14 million citizens without a stable income. While it’s hard to ignore the physical and economic impacts of the virus, COVID-19 has left a notable mark on the public’s social and cognitive health as well. Ironically, our retreat to isolation has induced a second epidemic: fueled by the disparity between our pre-COVID-19 lives and the current, dreary reality, loneliness and social isolation have quietly festered and wreaked havoc on American public health.
The Catalysts
With COVID meddling at everyone’s doorsteps, most of us have turned to social media and technology to fill the void left by quarantine isolation. To no one’s surprise, both are inadequate substitutes for in-person connection and its physical proximity and touch. In a phenomenon known as the “Loneliness paradox,” researchers saw a direct association between isolation and screen time, which engage in an often unhealthy vicious cycle. Social media analytics—the number of likes, shares, and comments—enable direct comparisons between ourselves and others, attaching numerical values to our perceived insecurities and highlighting them. Time spent fostering public digital connections, such as interacting with others’ Instagram posts or writing on friends’ Facebook timelines, often competes with time spent building more personal relationships. According to Statista, 67.6% of social media users report spending at least an extra hour online since March, placing a greater emphasis on online presence and public relationships, as opposed to private, well-rooted ones. This shift, along with the absence of physical touch and the numerical comparisons social media has enabled, has overall hindered our relationships and self-confidence.
Then there’s Zoom, the most infamous virtual meeting platform out there. Anyone else tired of Zoom? I sure am, and turns out there’s a good reason for that. Zoom fatigue, another COVID-induced phenomenon, highlights the discrepancy between a digital space and the physical classroom. Not only is communicating through a tiny, 2D box physically exhausting, but the constant search for non-existent eye contact and nonverbal cues takes a toll on our brains as well. Breakout rooms fail to recreate group collaboration, as the space for side conversations has been eliminated entirely, and the dreaded possibility of muted, apathetic groupmates makes the idea wholly unappealing. Zoom has made conversation and group interaction inorganic and taxing, leaving many of us students yearning for normal, albeit chaotic, school life once more.
The Virus
So what exactly have technology and social media acted as catalysts for, and what impacts can we observe? Well, going back to Dr. Cacioppo’s quote, these platforms have fostered a gap between virtual and physical reality, leading to a virus of loneliness in our isolated states. Loneliness may seem vague and subjective, but scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles actually developed an objective measure for the emotion, known as the UCLA loneliness scale (if you want to take it, you can calculate your score by summing your responses). Elsevier, an analytics company, published a survey last August detailing the correlation between prolonged social isolation and loneliness: 43% of the respondents in a representative U.S. sample reported loneliness rates above the published cut-off for “high loneliness,” and 54.7% of those lonely individuals met criteria for severe clinical depression, a diagnosis often linked with suicidal ideation. Researchers also observed a strong association between prolonged isolation and heightened stress and anxiety levels, which can manifest in severe mental disorders. Though this “second virus” may seem intangible at first, its impacts are just as destructive as COVID’s, and we shouldn’t lose sight of or minimize them.
The Cure
While quarantine has proven to be effective in combating the coronavirus, it has allowed a second, more subtle epidemic to creep up on the American public: one of loneliness and mental desolation. As case numbers continue to climb, constant comparisons between our current lifestyle and pre-COVID liberty have produced a historical low in terms of emotional state; and while subduing the coronavirus should remain a high priority, submitting to the dangers of social isolation is equally as harmful as herd immunity.
To me, community is key: growing desensitized to case numbers and assuming that “time heals” are easy cop-outs, but in reality, it’s people that heal each other. The insurmountable gap between “normal” and quarantine life has revealed that social media and online conversations sometimes aren't enough—pursuing relationships is crucial during such an emotionally trying time. Author Dan Schawbel puts it best: “What we've learned from coronavirus is the more we use technology, the more we actually want to be in person connecting to other people. It’s pushing us to be more human.”
As we round the corner on a new year and the ninth month mark of the coronavirus pandemic, quarantine becomes a heavier burden than ever before, restricting us from our traditional holiday celebrations and New Year festivities. Since the beginning of the pandemic, American adults living alone (around 28% of all households) have been deprived of physical connection. National unemployment rates have climbed as high as 16%, leaving over 14 million citizens without a stable income. While it’s hard to ignore the physical and economic impacts of the virus, COVID-19 has left a notable mark on the public’s social and cognitive health as well. Ironically, our retreat to isolation has induced a second epidemic: fueled by the disparity between our pre-COVID-19 lives and the current, dreary reality, loneliness and social isolation have quietly festered and wreaked havoc on American public health.
The Catalysts
With COVID meddling at everyone’s doorsteps, most of us have turned to social media and technology to fill the void left by quarantine isolation. To no one’s surprise, both are inadequate substitutes for in-person connection and its physical proximity and touch. In a phenomenon known as the “Loneliness paradox,” researchers saw a direct association between isolation and screen time, which engage in an often unhealthy vicious cycle. Social media analytics—the number of likes, shares, and comments—enable direct comparisons between ourselves and others, attaching numerical values to our perceived insecurities and highlighting them. Time spent fostering public digital connections, such as interacting with others’ Instagram posts or writing on friends’ Facebook timelines, often competes with time spent building more personal relationships. According to Statista, 67.6% of social media users report spending at least an extra hour online since March, placing a greater emphasis on online presence and public relationships, as opposed to private, well-rooted ones. This shift, along with the absence of physical touch and the numerical comparisons social media has enabled, has overall hindered our relationships and self-confidence.
Then there’s Zoom, the most infamous virtual meeting platform out there. Anyone else tired of Zoom? I sure am, and turns out there’s a good reason for that. Zoom fatigue, another COVID-induced phenomenon, highlights the discrepancy between a digital space and the physical classroom. Not only is communicating through a tiny, 2D box physically exhausting, but the constant search for non-existent eye contact and nonverbal cues takes a toll on our brains as well. Breakout rooms fail to recreate group collaboration, as the space for side conversations has been eliminated entirely, and the dreaded possibility of muted, apathetic groupmates makes the idea wholly unappealing. Zoom has made conversation and group interaction inorganic and taxing, leaving many of us students yearning for normal, albeit chaotic, school life once more.
The Virus
So what exactly have technology and social media acted as catalysts for, and what impacts can we observe? Well, going back to Dr. Cacioppo’s quote, these platforms have fostered a gap between virtual and physical reality, leading to a virus of loneliness in our isolated states. Loneliness may seem vague and subjective, but scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles actually developed an objective measure for the emotion, known as the UCLA loneliness scale (if you want to take it, you can calculate your score by summing your responses). Elsevier, an analytics company, published a survey last August detailing the correlation between prolonged social isolation and loneliness: 43% of the respondents in a representative U.S. sample reported loneliness rates above the published cut-off for “high loneliness,” and 54.7% of those lonely individuals met criteria for severe clinical depression, a diagnosis often linked with suicidal ideation. Researchers also observed a strong association between prolonged isolation and heightened stress and anxiety levels, which can manifest in severe mental disorders. Though this “second virus” may seem intangible at first, its impacts are just as destructive as COVID’s, and we shouldn’t lose sight of or minimize them.
The Cure
While quarantine has proven to be effective in combating the coronavirus, it has allowed a second, more subtle epidemic to creep up on the American public: one of loneliness and mental desolation. As case numbers continue to climb, constant comparisons between our current lifestyle and pre-COVID liberty have produced a historical low in terms of emotional state; and while subduing the coronavirus should remain a high priority, submitting to the dangers of social isolation is equally as harmful as herd immunity.
To me, community is key: growing desensitized to case numbers and assuming that “time heals” are easy cop-outs, but in reality, it’s people that heal each other. The insurmountable gap between “normal” and quarantine life has revealed that social media and online conversations sometimes aren't enough—pursuing relationships is crucial during such an emotionally trying time. Author Dan Schawbel puts it best: “What we've learned from coronavirus is the more we use technology, the more we actually want to be in person connecting to other people. It’s pushing us to be more human.”
