“He has ears, and two eyes, and ten fingers, leastways, if you reckon two thumbs; long ago he was one of the singers, but now he is one of the dumbs.”
Edward Lear (poet)
Last Friday James Kirkup, Director of the Social Market Foundation, wrote a comment article for The Times under the headline ‘We must work on our attitude to mental health’. He drew the connection between economic productivity and the huge number of working days lost to this cause, referring to Labour Force Survey data suggesting that, in mid-2022, there were 716,000 people economically inactive in the United Kingdom because of mental health and neurological conditions, including depression, nerves, anxiety and autistic spectrum disorders: an increase of 33% from 2019. 196,000 of these people were aged 16-34 (see also our commentary on 15 August '22).
Part of the explanation must, of course, be the scars left behind from the pandemic. But that in itself points to a malaise which is rooted in loneliness and self-orientation: the ‘poor me’ syndrome. In order to explore what lies behind this, we need to look deeper at what's changing in our society. As we commented in July ’21, the Onward report ‘Age of Alienation’ speaks of an almost isolated generation.
During the pandemic period, it reported that the proportion of 18-34 year olds reporting one or fewer close friends was three times the level (21%) than it was in 2011-12 (7%). Meanwhile those aged 18 - 24 were three times more likely (48%) to distrust their neighbours than those aged 65 and over (15%).
Other clues can be found in the changing pattern of home occupation. One-person households (those living alone) are the second most common type of household in the UK, accounting for almost one in three households in 2022 — that's nearly 8.3 million households. This is a modest increase over the position ten years earlier, but it's been accompanied by a number of significantly de-stabilising factors.
The first is the impact of technology over this period, during which live telephone conversations have been significantly replaced by digital communications: e-mail, text messaging and social media. A further big change, which coincided with, and was largely prompted by, the pandemic, has been the shift to working from home.
These may both be rational and logical developments, but for those living alone and in need of regular contact with others, they conspire to increase that sense of loneliness.
There's a further change which is also leaving its mark on society: the major fall-off in Christian affiliation throughout the United Kingdom (for example, the chart alongside shows the analysis for Buckinghamshire, including Milton Keynes). This has been matched almost one for one by the rise in those who state that they have no faith: it’s not the case for other religions such as Islam and Hinduism, whose affiliations are better supported by the desire to maintain a cultural identity.
Why should this matter? It's not just the removal of the opportunity to congregate with others in a church environment — it also goes right to the heart of the balance between caring for others and excess orientation on oneself.
Care for others is also a key part of enabling us to moderate the focus we place on ourselves. Communication is vital for maintaining a blend and mix of priorities, an opportunity for us to challenge our preconceptions and concerns, which otherwise rise unchecked within us. There's no substitute for human conversation in this respect: no amount of social media, text messaging or conversations with Alexa can begin to replicate it.
For those who live alone, it's important to find ways to enable human conversation. For some, the interest in others comes naturally; for others, particularly those on the autistic spectrum, a degree of self-discipline is necessary. And it's important to note that such conversations don't necessitate attempting to reach agreement or consensus on differing perspectives: reconciliation consists of building a respect for the other person’s point of view, however different, in a spirit of goodwill.
It’s difficult to maintain a balanced personal psychology without this social interaction.
Therefore, for those living alone without religious affiliation, it may be that placing a greater focus on community action, for example helping with local food banks, may help in finding ways of introducing human conversation.
From an economic perspective, the rising number of people living alone doesn’t only leave its mark on the housing sector, increasing the need for more residential capacity — it also increasingly bears down on incapacity for work through worries about mental health. It's therefore important that we look for opportunities to bring people together in order to focus more on others, not just on themselves.
James Kirkup is right to draw attention to the problem, but we need to tackle the cause — not just the symptoms.
Gavin Oldham OBE
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