I love this article and have seen the effects of our lack of ability to be social over the last 18 months. I work as a mental health therapist and we have been inundated by people coming in for services for depression and anxiety due to the isolation caused by the pandemic. When working with people who have depression, you typically try to get them to engage in social activities, but what happens when you really can’t. I had days where I felt like an ineffective therapist because all I could do was validate people’s feelings of how this was anxiety provoking or how they wanted that ability to spend time with people face to face. We have seen that people within our clinic have had poorer outcomes than ever before and most of it has to do with exactly this. It’s interesting to think how “keeping people safe” in terms of their physical health has done quite the opposite when it comes to their mental health.
Very interesting! I have been having some concerns over the experience of isolation during the pandemic, and especially how people have become increasingly engaged with social media echo chambers and polarized news media. It’s concerning because without exposure to other viewpoints, and compassion the we learn from interacting with people face to face, I fear we are in a time of two “realities”. And what happens to society if people can no longer agree on norms or Truth? I wonder.
I love this article and have seen the effects of our lack of ability to be social over the last 18 months. I work as a mental health therapist and we have been inundated by people coming in for services for depression and anxiety due to the isolation caused by the pandemic. When working with people who have depression, you typically try to get them to engage in social activities, but what happens when you really can’t. I had days where I felt like an ineffective therapist because all I could do was validate people’s feelings of how this was anxiety provoking or how they wanted that ability to spend time with people face to face. We have seen that people within our clinic have had poorer outcomes than ever before and most of it has to do with exactly this. It’s interesting to think how “keeping people safe” in terms of their physical health has done quite the opposite when it comes to their mental health.
Very interesting! I have been having some concerns over the experience of isolation during the pandemic, and especially how people have become increasingly engaged with social media echo chambers and polarized news media. It’s concerning because without exposure to other viewpoints, and compassion the we learn from interacting with people face to face, I fear we are in a time of two “realities”. And what happens to society if people can no longer agree on norms or Truth? I wonder.