For the past few months, we have been trapped inside our houses, unable to attend school, let alone anywhere with more than three people. The Coronavirus, or COVID-19 has ravaged the country, or so some think, and has shut down businesses across the country. Everyone knows this, probably even the illiterate Cro-Magnon living in the basement level of some dilapidated parking lot. In short, this pandemic has affacted society in more ways than many, but it takes its toll on us individually in the form of cutting off social connectivity.
Solitude is nice. It’s a break from the agonizing screams from parents, siblings, or both, a pause button for life’s worries and stress. However, on the contrary, isolation is, well… boring, not just as an annoyance. When society lacks social contact, datrimental effects befall on us people.
In “Forced Social Isolation Causes Neural Craving Similar to Hunger,” by Scott Barry Kaufman, MIT researchers conducted an experiment in which 40 people were instructed to spend 10 hours away from any and all forms of social contact, and the results showed that the participants experienced a feeling of hunger or withdrawl in the midbrain, not dissimilar to an experience of going long periods of time without drugs or food, creating a craving sensation. Earlier in the article, it states that, “If the need for connection really is a basic need, then its deprivation should show similar effects on the brain and behavior as the deprivation of other basic needs such as food and sleep.” Thus, taking the research into consideration, it is safe to assume that human nature has a specific requirement or need for social contact.
As humans, by nature, are social animals, this craving of being with friends, or even making new ones out of strangers, seems completely normal and evident. However, in an event such as COVID-19, in which we are bound to our couches at home, TV remotes, or computer mice in hand, it becomes extremely obvious that social contact is necessary.
At this point in time, we are both fractured from society as a whole, but are more connected than we ever were, thanks to the existence of a very helpful tool: the Internet. Modern technology has made it possible to talk to, play with, or see almost anyone you know. Most people end up online as a result of seperation in the real world, causing more socializing to occur, more friends being made, and generally, a higher usage of computers. Although connectivity is so easy, simple methods of communication can also distract us from work, or other things that are more important than chatting online.
Despite this pandemic tearing us apart in terms of social connection, it also brings us together in a more convenient, albeit less healthy way of being with the ones we love.