{"id":157,"date":"2020-05-07T18:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/?p=157"},"modified":"2020-05-07T19:46:52","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T18:46:52","slug":"157","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/2020\/05\/07\/157\/","title":{"rendered":"Loneliness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
George Susil-Pryke<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
BA (JS) Student in Philosophy and Politics<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
25\/04\/2020<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\n

It is self-evident that the issue of loneliness is ringing alarm bells across society today. Technological interconnectedness raises big questions: Does it hinder connectivity? Or, does a world brimmed of capitalistic rapaciousness reproduce loneliness? Research largely suggests both to be so. Loneliness has come to the forefront of all our minds with the onset of quarantine. We feel the need to stay connected with our friends and loved ones\u2026possibly now more than ever! This may indeed be true for those that have grandparents, especially with their mandatory confinement to their homes. Our need to stay in touch may suggest our worriedness for them being or becoming lonely and could also reflect our empathy and love for them. (This reminds me: I must
contact my Grandpa tonight!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read somewhere that our need to stay connected should not be reversed when we return to normality\u2014 and we shouldn\u2019t ignore loners or those on societies fringes. Contrastingly, Goodwin Hawkins & Meher state what normality is blighted by in their article: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loners (see: young, male, radicalized) are framed as a danger to be noticed and addressed and, in more benign urgencies, loneliness is the substance of ever multiplying government and think tank reports, a problem that vaguely defined \u2018thems\u2019 and \u2018theys\u2019 are increasingly urged to do more to tackle (Goodwin-Hawkins & Meher, 2019, p. 118).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It is rewarding to see and hear of so many charitable acts across society, like millions singing up to volunteering, or more small-scale acts of generosity like doing shopping for neighbours. We don\u2019t know what the world will be like after this, but without trying to sound trite, it is a time to self-reflect and ask questions of ourselves and others \u2014 hopefully a causation of change for the better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meher & Goodwins broadly define loneliness to be a lack of sociality and intersubjectivity (Goodwin-Hawkins & Meher, 2019, p. 114). If loneliness is to be taken as a lack of something, then it might be hard to define. Indeed, you\u2019d have to have a lack of loneliness to contrast it to what it is like to feel lonely. Moreover, we can reflect on our own experiences to understand loneliness better; but not all of us always feel lonely (if ever?). Before writing this article, I questioned my own understanding of loneliness. I\u2019d almost say I\u2019m privileged having consistently had good friends and family around me, but to say that I\u2019ve never felt lonely would be na\u00efve and superficially confident. Unlike what we may be inclined to believe, we can\u2019t always be social. If perceived as a lack of sociality, loneliness could be more ubiquitous than one may presuppose, and not merely confined to the elderly or those who\u2019re alone. We want to stay in touch with friends and often think about them, but to our discomfort, there will be times when we find ourselves disconnected and feeling lonely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loneliness could also come in the form of longing for a time in the past, a certain epoch; \u201cto feel lonely can mean feeling apart from some imagined, or remembered, or longed-for social coherence (Goodwin-Hawkins & Meher, 2019, p. 119).\u201d Social media seems replete with the kind of \u2018take me back to Wessi Beach\u2019 dialogue, which exists as a social figment of imagination in the person\u2019s mind. If you didn\u2019t already guess: Wessi Beach isn\u2019t real (at least I don\u2019t think it is), but it helps paint a picture of how a longing for the past or somewhere elsewhere is evoked by a feeling of detachment and longed for social coherence, which one may think is lacking in the present, thus inducing a feeling of loneliness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shouldn\u2019t trivialise the concept of loneliness; it is more fraught for some than others. But that doesn\u2019t lessen its lethality. Unfortunately, the elderly is vulnerable due to isolation and we shouldn\u2019t turn our backs on them. My two grandparents tragically died during a civil war\u2014amongst other factors, due to loneliness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My other Grandfather has complained of feeling lonely as of late. He\u2019s always had quite a resolute and zany demeanour, and seems to have been taking his matters of loneliness into his own hands; this was said in an email he sent me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for isolation my only human contact is making chatty remarks to those I meet (but do not get too near) in the park. Almost everybody is highly responsive, even the joggers to whom I say \u201cDon\u2019t you know it is illegal to run, you are only allowed to
walk\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Whilst this might not be advisable to all who are feeling lonely, humour can be one of those most beautiful things to alleviate you from a difficult situation, and it\u2019s good that Grandpa sees the funny side of isolation (as hopefully the jogger did too!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time of quarantine and mired in uncertainty, we shouldn\u2019t turn our back on our loved ones\u2014for they are our fabric\u2026maybe a popularisation of distant socialising instead of social distancing would better encapsulate our collective pursuits.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goodwin-Hawkins, B., & Meher, M. (2019). Epistolary Fragments for an Anthropology of Loneliness. Irish Journal of Anthropology, 114-121.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Susil-Pryke BA (JS) Student in Philosophy and Politics 25\/04\/2020 It is self-evident that the issue of loneliness is ringing alarm bells across society today. Technological interconnectedness raises big questions: Does it hinder connectivity? Or, does a world brimmed of capitalistic rapaciousness reproduce loneliness? Research largely suggests both to be so. Loneliness has come to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":778,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifeinlockdown"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}