Since the COVID pandemic has brought the world to a standstill, words, such as ‘social distancing’, ‘lockdown’ and ‘quarantine’ have become a part of our mundane lexicon. Our social and private lives have undergone sea changes since the advent of the pandemic. Precarious times demand bold measures and valorous sacrifices. Sometimes it propels unpopular or long castaway words to take centre stage. The fluctuating vagaries of society and changing forms of expressions entail usage of new or forgotten terminologies.
The Historical Roots Of Social Distancing
Today, the term ‘social distancing’ connotes one of the non-medical interventions encouraged by society and governments to prevent the spread of a viral disease. However, this term is not free of its historical and subjective meanings. The word ‘distance’ originates from the Latin’ distantia‘ meaning to ‘keep apart’ (both physical and mental) or a sense of ‘remoteness’ and difference.
Historically, the earliest forms of social distancing date back to the black plague outbreak in Europe. It is evident in 14th-century work of Giovanni Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’ where ten young men from Florence shun the public and go into a remote villa to avoid the plague. Later, the ghettoisation of lepers and leper colonies in Europe and Asia led to the stigma around the disease and had adverse effects on the mental health of the victims.
However, exceeding its ‘non-medical’ usages the term ‘social distancing’ has another facet to it. Measurements can quantify social distancing, but it can be qualitative if we take into account mental/emotional distancing. Distance is not a simple calculation of meters decided by doctors or codes of social propriety and cultural mores. It can be emotional or avoidance of intimacy.
According to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), “In 2017, 18 to 24-year-olds spent more time on social media than in 2015. In 2015, 17% spent 3 to 5 hours a day on social media and 4% 5 to 10 hours. In 2017, these shares had increased to 29% and 9% respectively”. We have all been guilty of keeping ourselves apart and indifferent to our surrounding and people by being in the cyberspace through a cell phone. The paradoxical nature of social distancing in a technology prone world is that one can be closer to their friends or family.
Nevertheless, one can simultaneously engage with someone miles away. It is when we zone out or mosaic our surrounding picture very much like a photo editing tool. Then we zoom into the webs, images or persons far from us, physically. Here, social distancing is defined as avoiding engaging in a conversation, short attention span or the inability to make eye contact even within a confined space.
The ‘word’ distance appears contradictory in physical terms, but the prefix ‘social’ sums up the reality. Primary contacts and face to face interactions stimulate emotional intimacy and strengthen social bonds. Conversation mediated by technology is an artificial projection of reality and the ‘self’ bracketing away the social.
In his essay, ‘The Stranger’ sociologist Georg Simmel describes the stranger as member of a group within which he lives and takes part, yet remains distant from other members of the group. In the technology-obsessed world, we have voluntarily made ourselves stranger to the groups who are at physical proximity to us. Simmel adds that unlike other types of social distancing, the stranger is perceived as ‘extraneous’ within the group. It is due to his (or her) origins. However, the voluntary disengagement from social participation has rendered us as ‘strangers’ to our most immediate realities as we have entered a phase of voluntary lockdown, the chances of getting hooked to our device an unfeigned dilemma.
Social Distancing With Social Media: On Mental Distancing
I often find myself checking my emails or social media accounts or getting hooked to Netflix more frequently than I usually do. The feeling monotony of ‘staying at home’ is now replaced by the trepidation that some exciting news about an article submission or webinar information would land on my mailbox or Facebook. In retrospect, it is the desire to know or get information about something or anything, even as futile as ad updates.
Psychologist B.F. Skinner in the 1930s conducted experiments on animals inside a ‘conditioning chamber’ called the Skinner box. For performing specific tasks, such as tapping on a lever for getting food, etc.; both positive and negative stimuli were assigned to particular tasks.
The positive reinforcement system ensured conditioning which triggered dopamine in the animals. The term called ‘dopamine loop’ refers to seeking or desiring information which makes you curious and triggers the pleasure centres of the brain.
One can quickly release this loop spiral further into depth information or images, as one goes on to seek more. An example here is scrolling through Instagram photos, or Facebook feeds. It becomes a compulsive habit.
The Latin term Distantia alludes to both emotional and physical distancing. While physical distancing is now a compulsion for our safety, mental distancing has been around since the advent of internet and cell phones. Here, mental distancing does not refer to shutting down our emotional faculties or refusing to talk but a form of social distancing wherein we forget to sometimes, realise the existence of people around us when we are in a gathering of friends, families or a dinner.
After the memories of the pandemic fade, it will continue to operate, as we users create multiple realities of in the cyberspaces and voluntarily eschew meaningful conversations. In Boccaccio’s Decameron, the ten young Florentines told stories to each other to pass the time, today, most of us may sit in silence engrossed in virtual reality and perhaps our stories will end within a 280 characters tweet.
Abhinita Mohanty is a Research Scholar in the department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras.