A little less lonely together

By Atanu Biswas

The World Health Organisation has now lifted the Public Health Emergency of International Concern for Covid-19. In an encouraging development, the US experienced an all-time decrease in cigarette smoking last year. But loneliness is another formidable foe that the world must battle. In fact, this fight can be more severe and challenging to prevail in.

Loneliness is typically defined as the feeling of lacking or losing companionship—a complex state that involves much more than just a negative emotion. It’s a growing health epidemic. Loneliness may contribute to higher chances of depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and sleep disorders among other conditions and it reportedly increases the risk of premature death by almost 30%. In effect, societal health is also seriously affected.

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The Covid pandemic is believed to have made the situation worse. According to estimates, loneliness has a negative impact on close to 50% of all Americans. And Dr. Vivek Murthy, the US Surgeon General, recently outlined initiatives to combat loneliness.

For a long time, Murthy has fought against this. His 2017 article in the Harvard Business Review cited a study that said social isolation is associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day! Subsequently, in 2020, Murthy published a book titled Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, in which he summarised the research on loneliness, gave us a primer on what it is, how it affects our physical and mental health, and how it shortens our lifespan. He also advised on how to develop stronger relationships and foster a more relationship-centered society.

It makes sense that the US health authorities are demanding that social isolation receive the same severe attention as drug abuse or obesity. “A fundamental human need, as essential to survival as food, water, and shelter,” is social connection, as described in the new advisory titled Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. Murthy put up a six-pillared strategy that includes measures to improve community social infrastructure, including the use of public health systems. Additional acts include spending 15 minutes with loved ones, avoiding distractions such as devices while speaking to people, and looking for ways to help one another.

Prior to this, the risk of loneliness was also discussed. Harvard professor Robert Putnam described the long-brewing epidemic of loneliness and social isolation in his seminal article Bowling Alone, published in 1995. He wrote a well-known book with the same name five years later. Putnam focused attention on institutional, technological, and societal changes that led to Americans becoming more estranged from one another and how social institutions broke down in the late 1960s and later, drawing on massive data that indicate Americans’ shifting behaviour. Putnam suggested solutions for the issue, including service-learning programmes, more interactive cultural and artistic endeavours, technologies that support face-to-face interaction, and closer workplace relationships.

Anywhere on the globe, loneliness ought to be a big problem. However, circumstances might change. Undoubtedly, the UK recognised loneliness as a severe issue. At the end of 2017, the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness released its final report, which examined strategies for reducing loneliness in the UK. It’s interesting to note that the first minister of loneliness was appointed in the globe, by the then-prime minister, Theresa May, in early 2018. According to May, it was a “national mission to end loneliness in our lifetimes.” However, not everyone agreed that it was a good option. For instance, Stephen Colbert, a well-known CBS talk show host, observed, “They’ve defined the most ineffable human problem and come up with the most cold, bureaucratic solution.” Is the UK any less lonely five years later? With a pandemic in between, it’s challenging to evaluate, though. Japan also created a Minister for Loneliness after the Covid-19 outbreak caused the nation’s suicide rate to rise for the first time in 11 years.

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Ah, technology! Is our propensity for “Bowling Alone” being exacerbated by our growing reliance on technology? Maybe. In her 2011 book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, MIT professor Sherry Turkle demonstrates how technology is affecting both our inner and social lives. According to Turkle, our constant reliance on technology and the digital world causes us to experience deep solitude, and as technology advances, our emotional lives deteriorate.

But hasn’t loneliness been a common emotion from time immemorial? With the development of psychology studies, have we simply discovered the vocabulary to describe the feeling? And is modern technology merely a cover for our ingrained loneliness? Well, in a 1953 article in The Nation, entitled “The Day After Tomorrow: Why Science Fiction?” celebrated American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury penned a personal account of observing a couple walking their dog in Beverly Hills one night. “The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleepwalking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there.” Remember, it was 1953—the day before yesterday!

Thus, loneliness may have been hardwired into our system. Even though we are together, we could still feel alone on this lonely planet. We are aware of that occasionally, but not always. Society may do better to work to stop becoming lonelier or to become “a little less lonely together,” at most if that is possible.

The writer is professor of statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata