According to an early 2020 survey conducted by NPR, 3 out of 5 Americans say that they are lonely, and that they are “left out, poorly understood and lacking companionship”. Since the survey was taken pre pandemic, it can be properly assumed that the problem has gotten worse with families being separated more than ever before, with people having to rely on Zoom calls to do just about anything productive. In my personal opinion and experience, I think that loneliness is more scary than watching horror movies with your friends, because at least when watching horror movies, you can share your fears and thoughts about the movie with the people next to you. Take the horror movie example and subtract the friends. The person is now completely alone, with no one to turn to for comfort. Chances are, people will become more fearful of the movie. The psychology behind what loneliness actually is is complicated, and it is a topic that has not really been addressed on the technological front, only by medical doctors who provide medicine for patients that suffer from chronic depression due to their loneliness. But recently, there have been studies from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and the JAMA Psychiatry that says that simple phone calls can help with loneliness. There is a catch to get the best results: the phone calls should consist of “empathetic conversation” which is just a big fancy way of saying that the phone calls need to be timed when the lonely person wants to talk, and the conversation needs to be open-ended, where the person that is lonely can talk for a long time, and the listener needs to develop a sense of understanding. What this does is hopefully to move away from the traditional scripts, and allow for people to connect on a personal level. The hope is that government organizations will be able to take action and implement hotlines for people to call and discuss whatever they want if they are feeling lonely.
., Healthline. “A Simple Phone Call Can Help Relieve Anxiety and Depression for Those in Lockdown.” Healthline, 2021, www.healthline.com/health-news/a-simple-phone-call-can-help-relieve-anxiety-and-depression-for-those-in-lockdown.
Renken, Elena. “Most Americans Are Lonely, And Our Workplace Culture May Not Be Helping.” NPR, NPR, 23 Jan. 2020, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/23/798676465/most-americans-are-lonely-and-our-workplace-culture-may-not-be-helping.
Zarei, Kasra. “Loneliness Is a Public Health Problem: This Low-Tech Intervention Can Help.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 26 Mar. 2021, www.scientificamerican.com/article/loneliness-is-a-public-health-problem-this-low-tech-intervention-can-help/.
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