Why don't I enjoy socializing anymore?
Lucy Kemmer
2025-06-22 20:29:48
Count answers: 7
Lockdown, social distancing, and the havoc they wreaked on memory may have depleted social stamina, making people feel awkward and anxious. Chronic isolation of the pandemic is linked to a cognitive decline in general. At one level, it completely messes up memory. Each day blending into the other — in the absence of commute, interaction, scenery — impacts the way the brain processes memories. The isolation may have also made us rusty in impacting our ability to recall words or things. For me, for 90% of the time now, I’m speaking only to my partner, in very familiar conversational patterns. I feel a bit shaky when it’s time to chat with a friend as if it requires dredging up a once-familiar language.Moreover, the brain is shrinking due to chronic isolation — it will inevitably impact our ability to connect easily with other people. Previously, research has shown people with smaller social circles tend to have a smaller amygdala, the brain’s emotion-processing center. Loneliness also plays with our hormone levels. A raft of studies draw a link between social distancing affecting people’s stress levels; even making them more vulnerable to depression. Researchers also note it can impact hormones that regulate social bonding; in that, some people be negative or paranoid depending on how their bodies process this period. Overall, psychologists are seeing more adults report stress over social interactions, ranging from not knowing how to bookend interactions without a handshake or a hug, to running out of things to talk about. A more instinctive reason for our “de-socialization,” if I may, is the few stories we have amassed over the year. Social skills are, after all, skills, and it only makes sense if they feel a little out of practice.
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