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The year of solitude
By Tone Sofie Aglen
Commentator
Of all the nasty new words in recent years, our politicians have inflicted the worst on us: “Social Bubble” gives me the creeps.
This is a comment. The comment expresses the attitude of the writer.
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“If everyone is really good and stays away from people in November, we can all celebrate Christmas with the extended family again.” Erna Solberg’s carrot for crown-weary Norwegians might work for some, but for others it’s just another slap in the face.
Every year I am amazed at how many people say they have a somewhat strained relationship with Christmas. That they wished the calmer days had passed a little faster. It’s easy to feel a bit of a failure in the face of huge expectations of happiness and family romance. Everything that is a little difficult in life is often amplified “when all sounds are wrapped in cotton.”
No, thanks for everyday life, even gray.
November has never had a good reputation, but it has rarely been as black as it is now. Walk around in withered fall leaves and use disposable bandages that haven’t made it into a garbage can. Instead of a smile from a random passerby, they all look like they are going to rob a bank or have just escaped from the operating room. It is raining heavily and someone has turned off the light. But unlike in previous years, we don’t have a Christmas table to look forward to.
It’s easy to get discouraged when, after eight months at the home office, you are told to go back to the home office, arm yourself with a bandage, and stay in the social bubble.
It may be easy for the Prime Minister to make a “bubble”, but I only get unpleasant associations with gym classes at school where you had to choose equipment. The best and most popular were chosen first. Some always remained standing.
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Almost a million Norwegians live alone. Most of the people who live alone are in Oslo. Then it can quickly turn into enough free time, as it is so well called. Even those of us who basically like the home office, it seems like month after month with no colleagues, work lunch, and a casual chat at the coffee machine.
It’s also not so great to sit in front of a screen all day. One thing the pandemic has really taught us is that digital meeting places do not replace physical ones.
If it is a comfort, then you are not the only one who feels this way.
In the current Norwegian book “The Century of Loneliness”, British economics professor Noreena Hertz has traveled the world to describe the negative effects of loneliness. He started with the book long before the pandemic, but the timing of publication couldn’t have been better. We can all complement with experiences from this “lonely year.”
People who hire a professional friend or Japanese retirees who commit shoplifting to become part of the prison community are among the most extreme examples. But the inspiration for the book came from his own students, who recounted how lonely and isolated they felt. She observed that they had difficulty reading facial expressions and physically moving.
Hertz believes that loneliness is a major social problem. More dangerous than sitting still, being overweight, and smoking 15 cigarettes a day. And what’s worse: we become less empathetic.
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The author attributes, somewhat stenciled, much of the blame to capitalism and neoliberalism. We have become “competitors and consumers” instead of “partners and citizens”. She believes there have been fewer and fewer physical meeting places and social communities are deteriorating.
One of the most interesting things he points out is how we have decorated society. Instead of meeting real people when we call, there are more and more robots at the other end. E-commerce is spreading and the daily chatter at the convenience store checkout is being replaced by self-service checkouts. Postal and banking services have been replaced mainly by digital services. Even city checks are digitized.
We have viewed much of this as progress, without meaningfully reflecting on what happens when we reduce human contact surfaces. As a result of corona, we are in many nightclubs to order food and drink in one application. Many people find it convenient.
Thank you for offering. Let the nitrous habit that turns the good bartender or barista into an offer disappear from our lives along with face masks and social bubbles.
