September 16, 2022 – You brought your computer home from work “for two weeks” in March 2020 and stayed home for two years. Schools have become virtual. Club meetings have been cancelled. Closed gyms.
Friends and family are now banned. Remember avoiding other people on the street?
The situation has improved since the outbreak, but we have been in relative isolation for much longer than expected. This is a little sad – and bad for us. It turns out that avoiding the virus can harm your health, because teamwork and communication are the foundations of our well-being.
Richard B. says: “This is called the need to belong, and it is there as a basic need of food and water.”
It stands to reason that Neanderthals who congregated with others were more likely to find food, protect each other, and survive to pass on their genes, he says.
When we were suddenly pushed Isolation In 2020, social relations were already eroding. the book bowling alone I got out two decades ago. Author Robert D. Putnam lamented the decline in “social capital,” the value we get from connections and our sense of community support. Atlantic Ocean I ran a story called “Why don’t you see your friends anymore?” Months before any of us heard about COVID-19.
The pandemic has accelerated these feelings of isolation. Even after vaccination and reinforcement, many of us feel that we are not communicating as well as we would like. For some, politics has deepened this divide.
Should we care? Yes, experts say. Social relationships are closely related to health and longevity. A famous study was published in 2010 in MEDICINE PLOS He concluded that social connections were as important to health as not smoking and more influential than exercise.
This review, which was based on data from 148 studies, found that people with stronger social relationships were 50% more likely to survive over 7.5 years of follow-up (that is, not die from causes such as cancer or heart disease), compared to those with weaker relationships.
Evidence continues to emerge. American Heart Association publish a statement In August this year, he said social isolation and loneliness were linked to a 30% increased risk of infection. Heart attack and stroke.
Crystal Wiley Sene, president of the group that wrote the statement, said in new version.
The organization said the data supported what we suspected: Isolation and loneliness increased during the pandemic, particularly among adults aged 18-25, the elderly, women, and those on low incomes.
Your contraction cycle
In the first year of pandemicThere was a slight increase in loneliness and psychological distress and a slight decrease in life satisfaction, according to a 2022 study in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
For about 1 in 4 people, social circles have shrunk, says study author Emily Long, PhD, “even after lockdown restrictions were relaxed.”
When your circle shrinks, you tend to keep those closest to you – the people who probably look a lot like you. Check out the diversity of opinions and perspectives that you might get into a conversation with, someone in your bicepsball league, for example, or even a stranger.
“Our exposure to different people, lifestyles, and opinions has decreased dramatically,” Long says. Many of us have seen relationships with others weaken or break completely due to disagreements over COVID restrictions and vaccines.
This happened with acquaintances, close friends, or family members where their opinions on hot topics came to the fore – topics we might have avoided in the past to keep the peace.
Long says some of those relationships may not be rebuilt, though it’s too early to say.
How to make better connections online
Many of us have jumped online for our social interaction. Did Zoom, Instagram and Facebook help us connect?
Certainly, in a way.
“It can be more difficult sometimes, but people can have meaningful relationships without being physically close,” he says. John CollinPh.D., chair of the department of communications at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who studies “computer-based communication.”
It all depends on how you use it. Late-night “scrolling agony” isn’t considered relationship building. But you can form new or stronger bonds through social media if you “treat each other like people,” he says.
Here’s one way: Don’t lazy click a “like” on a post, but instead leave a thoughtful comment that adds value to the conversation. Perhaps chime in with your experience or offer words of support. Make a recommendation for the restaurant if they are traveling.
But remember, social media has become a minefield during the pandemic, says Cullen. People have criticized their views on staying at home, vaccination, and masks. You quickly learned who shared your opinions and rethought your relationship with others.
It’s tempting to view social media as a disaster. This may just be our ingrained reaction to the panic button of modern technology, Colin says. Surprisingly, extensive research – and there has been a lot – has shown social media to have little effect on well-being, he says.
newly A meta-analysis from Stanford University Over 226 studies from 2006 to 2018 looked for a link between social media use and well-being. What they found: zero. Some studies show a link between social media and anxiety and depression, and that’s true, but it may be because those who have depression Or anxious they are likely to spend more time socializing as a way to distract themselves.
Make someone happy, including you
Does this sound familiar? You tend to keep up with friends as a social media snooper rather than calling, texting or meeting face to face for example. If this sounds like you, you’re not alone.
But if you change course and start communicating again, you and the other person will likely benefit. New search from American Psychological Association Nearly 6,000 people have found that when someone calls us – even if it’s with a quick text message – we appreciate them very much. The study wasn’t just about the pandemic, but the researchers say the findings could help people rebuild relationships, especially if they aren’t confident to try.
Meanwhile, Slatcher, a professor in Georgia, notes that more screen time “is not the answer” to loneliness or separation.
“All the work has shown that social media use is not associated with people being happier or less depressed,” he says.
According to Slatcher, the two main parts of building and maintaining relationships are:
- self-disclosurewhich means sharing something about you or being vulnerable by letting others know your personal information.
- Responsewhich simply means responding to what someone is saying, asking follow-up questions, and perhaps kindly sharing something about you as well, without taking over the conversation.
This happens in person all the time. On social media, not so much.
“Both men and women are happier when they feel emotionally close to someone else, and that is even more difficult online,” says Slatcher.
It turns out that the strongest connections – the ones that are best for your well-being – happen when you turn off the phone.
An amazing bright spot in the epidemic connection
We have felt more divided than ever during the pandemic, which is confirmed by Bio . search. By some measures, Americans have the lowest levels of social trust since World War II Frederick C. Riley, executive director of Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute. If the neighbors within the community do not trust each other, they cannot trust the community as a whole.
But it’s not all bad news.
Riley says researchers have noticed that connections within communities grow stronger during an epidemic. These are the people who run errands for elderly neighbors, donate supplies and clothing, set up family-friendly get-togethers, build community gardens, and more.
Long and colleagues found that the “we’re all in this together” mindset arose early in the pandemic. A meta-analysis in 2022 in Psychological Bulletin I found that there is more cooperation between strangers. This may be due to increased urbanization or living alone – distance from our tight-knit crew forces some to cooperate with others when they don’t.
This, too, is healthy: a sense of belonging in your community, or “neighbourhood cohesion,” for example Study 2020 According to Canadian researchers, it has been linked to a lower risk of strokes, heart attacks, and early death. It also helps in Psychological health.
You can benefit from this, for example, volunteering at your child’s school, attending religious services, and joining Fitness Or go to festivals in your city. The study authors say that these things provide a sense of identity, higher self-esteem, and can reduce stress and make you feel less alone. It also reinforces the feeling that we can bring about meaningful change in our cities.
Sure, we’ve all been arguing a lot these days – gun control, miscarriagePolitics. Deeper issues, such as feeling safe in the community and creating a better place for children to grow up, help us move past these hot issues, Riley says.
Sharing goals brings people together, he says, and nurtures that innate drive to connect and collaborate.
“I’m really optimistic about what the future holds,” he says. “We’ve been to this place [of social distrust] Before, people in communities are showing that anyone can stand up and improve where they live.”
Discussion about this post