Did video chats make people feel lonelier during lockdown?

[bluescope]

THE FACTS:

A report shows that over-60s who kept in touch during lockdown using video chats were lonelier than those who didn’t
• People struggled to learn how to use video tools, or ended up using them too much
• Its authors recommend that if more lockdowns are needed, authorities should let families meet each other safely

 

Did video chats make people feel lonelier during lockdown?

When the first lockdown began in -March 2020 (in the UK), video calls were hailed as a way for loved ones to stay in touch. Tools like Zoom soared in popularity as people swapped physical hugs for on-screen kisses. The media marvelled at this, but did it do more harm than good, particularly among older people?

A new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Sociology (www.snipca. com/39045), has found that over-60s who chatted online felt lonelier and more depressed than those who didn’t.

The result surprised the report’s co-author, Dr Yang Hu of Lancaster University, who said: “We were expecting that a virtual contact was better than total isolation but that doesn’t seem to have been the case for older people”. He stresses that video chats affected all forms of mental health, not just loneliness. One of the reasons for this, he says, is that those who were unfamiliar with video tools found it stressful to learn how to use them. But more confident users suffered too because they were overwhelmed by having too many video chats – or “burnout” as Dr Hu calls it.

Another painful reason is that a video chat can remind you what you’re missing out on. You can’t hug a screen, just like you can’t hug a memory.

The report, which Dr Hu wrote with Dr Yue Qian at Canada’s University of British Columbia, collected data from 5,148 people aged 60 or over in the UK and 1,391 in the US – both before and during the pandemic. It’s the first to assess social contact and mental wellbeing during lockdown, though the authors don’t claim that video chats caused loneliness, only that they were associated with it.

Dr Hu called for more research, saying it’s “possible that people who felt more
isolated and lonelier tended to make virtual contact more frequently” – getting trapped in a cycle that only made them feel increasingly worse.

Charities welcomed the report. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “It’s not over the top to point out that in the worst cases, loneliness can kill in the sense that it undermines resilience to health threats of many kinds, as well as leading to older people in the twilight of their lives losing all hope, so they lack a reason to carry on”.

Patrick Vernon, associate director at the Centre for Ageing Better, pointed out that while he saw many examples of older people using technology to stay connected in “really positive ways”, a lack of confidence “can prevent people from using the internet in the ways that they’d like to”.

Frustratingly, the report lapses into jargon in its key recommendation: “Policymakers and practitioners need to take measures to pre-empt and mitigate the potential unintended implications of household-centred pandemic responses for mental well-being”.

Translated, this means more should be done to teach older people digital skills. It also advises that if further lockdowns are needed, authorities should set up safe ways for families to meet face to face. This backs up other studies showing that video interaction can boost well-being only when supplemented by physical contact.

This approach, mixing video with real meetings, may gain support as the wider effects of lockdown become known – though hopefully we’ll never have to put it into practice. Let’s hope the days of being restricted to virtual hugs have gone for good.

 

"A video chat can remind you what you’re missing out on. You can’ thug a screen, just like you can’t hug a memory"

"This backs up other studies showing that video interaction can boost well-being only when supplemented by physical contact."

Those two quotes are interesting, I think. For myself, I don't know what i would do without Zoom. Seeing my family - my children and their children and their childrens' children and my brothers and cousins - is not a hug but it is a promise of hugs to come. -

Maz (once known as bluescope)