A new pandemic is about to consume human civilisation… Loneliness! Fay Bound Alberti, a British historian and the author of ‘A Biography of Loneliness: The History of an Emotion‘, has described loneliness as a conscious feeling of alienation from significant people or social isolation. She believes that loneliness can easily consume youths and their exuberance, as it causes depression, anxiety, heart disease, dementia and sleep apnea. Loneliness may also increase the chance of premature demise by 30%. Social isolation can shorten life expectancy, as it is equivalent to consuming 15 cigarettes a day. According to psychologists, loneliness or isolation is more dangerous than solitude. Many want to travel alone in order to enjoy their lives. Once, Belgian-American poet, novelist and essayist May Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995) said: “Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.”

Dr Vivek Hallegere Murthy, the 21st Surgeon General of the US and the first of Indian descent, recently made several plans to combat social isolation. In his 2020 publication ‘Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World‘, Dr Murthy explained the nature of loneliness, analysed the research works on this subject and mentioned the potential physical and emotional harm loneliness could cause. He explored how to foster a relationship-centred society in order to prevent loneliness, saying that social contact should be recognised as a basic human need, just like food, water and shelter.

Loneliness and its perils have been studied for a long time. However, Alberti stressed that there was little scope for long-term solitude before the 19th Century, as people had to spend a long time with others in order to earn a living. Hence, they did not get an opportunity to feel lonely. It may also be possible that loneliness was there long ago, but people were unable to express this particular feeling. Loneliness did not appear in English literature, too, before 1800. Perhaps, Hamlet is one of the exceptions, where Ophelia suffers from loneliness.

Robert David Putnam, the Professor of Political Science at Harvard University, penned an article, titled ‘Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital‘, in 1995. In 2000, he published ‘Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community‘, a book-length expansion of the original argument, adding new evidence and answering many of his critics. In this publication, the author outlined the age-old epidemic of loneliness and social isolation. With sufficient data, Professor Putnam showed how institutional, technological and social changes have shaken the institutional fabric of American society since the late 1960s, and has also alienated people from each other. He mentioned that the issue should be addressed by increasing communication through social activities, and cultural and technological methods.

The Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness of Britain identified loneliness as a very sensitive issue a couple of years ago. The Commission, formed in 2016, prepared its report in 2017. In early 2018, Theresa May, the then Prime Minister of Britain, appointed the first Minister of Loneliness in the history of the world. Five years have passed since then. It is difficult to predict whether Britons are a little less lonely now. The COVID-19 Pandemic changed the scenario in 2019-20. Meanwhile, Japan, too, has created the Ministry of Loneliness after the rate of committing suicide has rose (for the first time in 11 years) in the post-Pandemic period.

The question arises here: What is the main driver of this increasing loneliness? Many believe that it is technology. In his 2011 publication ‘Alone together: Why we expect more from Technology and less from each other‘, MIT Professor Sherry Turkle argued that as technology ramped up, human emotional lives ramped down. He explained how technology was affecting both our being and social life. According to Professor Turkle, our constant reliance on technology and the spiralling digital world are pushing us deeper into loneliness, damaging the emotional part of human life.

Twelve years have passed since the publication of this book. Our digital dependence has increased further during this period of time (mainly because of the COVID-19 Pandemic). Now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a popular software that stresses on the intelligence of machines, and not on the intelligence of humans or animals. Technology shall continue to improve. However, human beings should not be lonely due to technological advancement. It may be noted that American Sociologist David Riesman‘s ‘The Lonely Crowd‘ was published in 1950 when only one person used to live in 9% of houses in the US. Loneliness became an important chapter of psychology by the end of 1959. It was not a technology-intensive era.

According to Alberti, the modern solitude is the result of social divisions and hierarchies that have developed since the early 19th Century. The alienation of a person from her/his own self, the community and the state has made one lonely. Politics and individualistic philosophy have given birth to loneliness. Roughly from the 19th Century, the concept of loneliness started influencing society and literature. This is not a mere coincidence. It seems that the market economy has created the concept of Privacy, which is one of the main drivers of loneliness.

Yet, trying to explain loneliness by analysing just one particular social aspect can be considered as an oversimplification. In reality, one may be alone while living in a society. Men formed society in the distant past mainly to overcome their struggle against nature. Although men have always stressed on collective society, they actually want to stay alone, as men love privacy the most. Eradicating loneliness or the sense of loneliness is quite impossible. Furthermore, there is a difference between staying alone and feeling lonely. Robinson Crusoe was alone, but it cannot be said with certainty that he was lonely.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das