Megan Smith joins Spectrum News 1 to discuss how to navigate loneliness
Megan Smith, Ph.D., assistant teaching professor in the Department of Sociology, joined Spectrum News 1’s segment, ‘COVID-19 shed a light on loneliness, and it’s still an issue for many.’
In 2023, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared loneliness an epidemic, due to its association with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death.
As in-person jobs moved online and social activities slowed to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness became a major topic of public conversation due to the physical and mental isolation. Even five years after the start of the pandemic, contributing factors to loneliness are still prevalent.
“We live in a productivity culture, where people are admired and rewarded for their productivity. But the problem was that it masked the feeling of feeling lonely,” Smith said. “All of [the] sudden, magazines are talking about it, news outlets are talking about it, it’s appearing on social media, and it becomes part of the social discourse.”