According to UN estimates, the current world population is over eight billion in December of 2023. We have 917 kph high speed 747 Boeing Airplanes that can take us from one to the other of the world in less than 18 hours. There is a wonderful network of highways in all countries. Telecommunication satellites have revolutionized the concept of communication. Despite all of the above facilities, human loneliness in a crowded world has strangely increased many times in the last few decades.
Loneliness is not limited to any single country; it is like a global epidemic. A recent report by Toronto Foundation says, Toronto is one of the loneliest places in Canada. Torontonians are interacting less, making fewer friends and social connections. Intimacies have reduced and distances increased.
People are not feeling the need to meet other people. Noreena Hertz of University College, London, in 2021, wrote in her book, The lonely century,” contactless was starting to become our way of life, our active choice”.
This situation may lead to further deterioration in behaviours, and human role as a social animal may also be changed gradually.
What is loneliness, and what are the contributors to loneliness in a crowded world?
What are the facts about loneliness in Canada and the US?
How can we improve behaviors to enhance interactions with others, and to bring about a positive change in society?
Loneliness is a state of mind, it causes people to feel alone, empty, and sad and unwanted. This state of mind makes it more difficult to form connections and relationships. We may feel content without much contact with others, and it is the changing state of mind in our times, which some feel normal now, but its not.
We are in contact with others through social media, internet, and cell phones but “human moments” of actual face to face exchange and interactions have highly reduced.
One in four Americans feel like they have no one to talk to about personal problems. Being single increases loneliness and affects the instinct of caring and sharing of pains and pleasures.
Statistics Canada says overall 28 per cent people in Canada reported feeling lonely three days in a week. In Toronto this is 37 per cent, and in the GTA it’s 35 per cent, higher than the Canadian average. Close to 33 per cent of people in the US experience loneliness on a regular basis.
The recent advancements in digital technology and internet use have further increased loneliness. We interact more, but still, we are lonely in a crowded world, because its not face to face in person interaction. The health impact of loneliness is harmful, it is like smoking up to fifteen cigarettes a day. According to one study published in the Journal PLO’S medicine, loneliness is linked to increased risk of heart disease, and depression.
The reduced interactions with cashiers at checkouts, visits to libraries, public parks, neighborhood parties, playgrounds, and community centres are affecting society. With reduced bank visits we do not interact with bank staff for months. Airline booking and check-ins are done at home. Every minute we are on cell phone screens for interaction with another person instead of in person direct contact.
COVID encouraged us to work from home, which also greatly reduced human interaction and we lost the little gossip opportunity with coworkers at tea and lunch breaks. Small babies are late in learning language, as parents are mostly on cell phones and even at home they don’t speak to each other, rather send texts, and a baby doesn’t get a chance to listen and learn speech by listening to new words.
Every task is becoming automated without human interaction and we do not feel the need to have an in- person conversation, but these digital contacts can’t fulfill the need to talk to a fellow human being. A void remains somewhere.
The best remedies that can improve behaviors and interactions have been adapted and tried in Japan and United Kingdom and the situation is improving.
The UK and Japan have already established ministries of loneliness to coordinate efforts and promote policy across ministries and agencies to address loneliness and isolation. Strengthening social infrastructure, which includes things like parks and libraries as well as public programs. Enacting pro-connection public policies at every level of government, including things like accessible public transportation or paid family leave.
Studies show that on an individual level, interaction with others who understand this situation, validate feelings of loneliness, and offer a non-judgmental ear can be of tremendous help, saying something like “We all need friends. I am here for you.”
A close connection with family relationships strengthens bonds and provides inner satisfaction by exchanging common experiences, stories, and values.
The shift in daily routine and the demands of a busy lifestyle in the modern world are disintegrating social fabric and making the society individualistic, lonely, and secluded. We need to re-knit this fabric again with care, concern, and love. The investment in addressing social connections is urgently needed to grow a new culture of human relationships, otherwise we will start living alone in a self centered and selfish society without any emotions and soft feelings for fellow human beings.
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