In appointing the first “Minister of Loneliness,” at least the British government recognizes they have a problem. Nonetheless, Stephen Colbert, among others, couldn’t resist using the news item as fodder for comedy: “This is so British,” he said. “They’ve defined the most ineffable human problem and come up with the most cold, bureaucratic solution.”
But, as The New Yorker put it, Britain’s Minister of Loneliness, is “no laughing matter.”
An estimated 9 million people in Britain say they are always or often lonely. The appointment of a Minister of Loneliness came as a recommendation from the Jo Cox Loneliness Commission. As a young girl, Jo Cox would often tag along with her grandfather, a postman. It dawned on her that her grandfather, the postman, was the only person many of the residents saw all day. Cox, a member of Parliament who was tragically murdered in 2015, herself experienced loneliness when she was a student and working mom at Cambridge University.
Researchers, including Jennifer Caudle, DO, assistant professor of family medicine at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, point to several causes for the apparent uptick in loneliness: Long working hours, for starters, plus increased use of social media, which in many cases surpasses person to person interaction—as well as a mobile workforce traveling or living far from family.
What about the U.S.? According to an online poll of 2,000 Americans, 72 per cent reported having a sense of loneliness, with nearly a third of experiencing loneliness at least once a week.
It seems fair to conclude from the results of that study, that even after the long day at work or at school, when the family is “together,” the increased use of social media still infringes on community life within the family structure, over time exacerbating the feeling of aloneness, even though family members may physically be in the same place at the same time.
In an open letter to Apple, on January 6, 2018, New York-based Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System wrote of their increasing concern about the effects of mobile devices and social media on youngsters, urging Apple to offer more tools and choices to help prevent harm.
What harm? The letter cited one study that found that 67 percent of over 2,300 teachers surveyed believe that the number of students who are negatively distracted by gadgets in the classroom is growing, while 75 percent say students’ ability to focus on educational tasks has decreased. And in another study, eighth graders who are heavy users of social media were shown to have a 27 percent higher risk of depression compared to children who exceed the average time spent playing sports, socializing with friends, or doing homework. What’s more, a whopping fifty per cent of teens say they are addicted to their devices.
A year ago, Stephanie Gosk, of NBC News, asked teens to give up their phones for a week, just to see what would happen. At first, they experienced withdrawals. “I’m already really bored,” one said shortly after giving up his cell phone. “It really sucks,” added a girl. Then, something happened among the young people.
“I went to dinner with my family,” another girl said. “I didn’t have my phone, and we, like, talked the whole time, and that was nice.”
Giving up cell phones isn’t realistic, Wolf admits. But maybe those investors who wrote Apple are on to something. Perhaps it’s the same thing the Brits have recognized in their corner of this ever-shrinking world in which we live.
Face to face communication, interacting with others, actually speaking to folks on a regular basis—those familiar faces at the grocery store, or post office, or church—caring about those near to you, especially those across the dinner table, or on the other end of the couch, might not only, in the words of that teenager, be “nice,” it might add some spice to life, and what’s more, as some studies indicate, more years to life as well.
And who knows? We might even avoid having to hire another government official.