Apps to keep you connected in coronavirus lockdown, for serious conversations and finding a pen-pal – or a shoulder to cry on
- QuarantineChat allows users to virtually travel and talk with strangers in another country. Slowly! revives the old-fashioned hobby of having a pen-pal
- Headspace has a library of meditations you can try, while HearMe helps those feeling anxious or lonely to connect with volunteer listeners
French adventurer and scientist Michel Siffre cloistered himself in a subterranean cave without a clock, a calendar or seeing the sun for two months in 1962. Ten years later, he hunkered down in a cave in Texas for more than six months in one of the longest self-isolation experiments in history.
Siffre suffered from loneliness and sensory deprivation, his sleep cycle veered out of sync and after a couple of months, he could not even string words together.
Social isolation and loneliness have a serious impact on our physical and mental well-being. A lack of human contact is associated with decline in cognitive function. According to scientists, isolation can impair thinking and the ability to remember information, lead to obsessive thinking, hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms, and increase the incidence of suicide.
In 2018, a US Loneliness Index produced by insurance giant Cigna found that loneliness has become an epidemic, with half the population feeling alone or left out.
The Covid-19 pandemic has left many people isolated – often as they work from home without much social interaction – and dealing with loneliness and being cut off from society has become a challenge. The good news is that entrepreneurs have been developing apps that help people feel more connected.
In early 2019, Danielle Baskin and Max Hawkins, US-based multimedia artists with an interest in “voice and serendipity”, founded Dialup, a voice-based network that connects strangers at different times of the day.