Loneliness highlighted by social media
Social media is a double-edged sword that could make Britain’s loneliness epidemic worse, the sister of murdered MP Jo Cox has said in response to research which found that 9 million people in the UK feel permanently isolated.
Speaking at the launch yesterday of a report commissioned by the Labour MP before her death, Kim Leadbeater said technology was a force for good, but that it had reduced people’s time for ‘‘proper human connections’’.
‘‘Our lives nowadays are so busy. We’re constantly dashing around, we spend the vast majority of our time on our phones, on our laptops. We need to press pause on that and actually sit down and speak to human beings,’’ she said.
The Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, a cross-party initiative, said there was a ‘‘gap in national leadership on loneliness’’, and urged the government to appoint a minister to lead action on the issue. It said loneliness was as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
The report calls on the government to launch an annual loneliness survey of the whole population to measure the problem, which charities have described as an epidemic.
Cox established the commission before a far-right fanatic murdered her outside her constituency office in June 2016.
Leadbeater said both she and her late elder sister suffered loneliness when Cox left home to go to Cambridge University, and it was encouraging that people were opening up about it.
‘‘What we’re lacking is proper human connections, where we actually sit down with somebody, we have eye contact, we might even touch them,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s a double-edged sword. I think technology is brilliant in that
Our lives nowadays are so busy ... We need to press pause on that and actually sit down and speak to human beings.
Kim Leadbeater
it can help to connect people, but it is not a substitute for human contact. It’s fantastic in many ways, but it doesn’t replace sitting down with a human being.’’
Leadbeater said everyone in society had a role to play in combating loneliness, and urged people to devote just an hour of their time a week to sit down with a neighbour.
The report said loneliness affected people of all ages, not just older generations. It found that 43 per cent of 17- to 25-year-olds using the charity Action for Children, which helps vulnerable and neglected young people, reported feeling isolated.