National

Opinion | The pandemic is over, but we’re not hanging out like we used to

July 13, 2023

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On vacation this month, I pulled off a feat that once required barely a phone call and now takes approximately six months of planning: hanging out with my friends, all weekend long.

Yes, we’re at that stage of life where small kids and work schedules get in the way. But it’s more than that. Something has happened to dampen not just our social lives, but also our will toward community, novelist Rebecca Makkai writes in the latest and all-too-resonant essay in our Post Pandemic series. “As we emerge from our most restrictive covid precautions, the tables have turned,” she writes. “I find myself in a world in which many have become more introverted. And I hate it.”

As Makkai points out, it used to be a commonplace how much we needed each other. “Bowling Alone” was diagnostic, not aspirational. But the self-isolating habits of the pandemic — in combination with remote work and the crutch of not-quite-social social media — have tipped the balance toward much greater time spent alone. And for people such as Makkai, realizing afresh how much they thrive on human interaction, the question is how to gently draw loved ones back into social communion again — or, in her words, “how much I should accept that I now live in a world in which there are fewer parties, fewer shows, fewer summer festivals and dinners.”

Makkai is reacting to a real change in how Americans live. In November, economist Bryce Ward wrote in our pages about what he saw as the worrisome stats on Americans spending more time alone, even before covid-19 hit: “During the pandemic, time with friends fell further — in 2021, the average American spent only two hours and 45 minutes a week with close friends (a 58 percent decline relative to 2010-2013).”

That’s an issue not just for happiness, but also for our health. In March, columnist Leana Wen wrote about eight suggestions from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to try to overcome what he has described as a “loneliness epidemic.”

Anyway, if you’re missing your loved ones, here’s a reminder that it’s summer. Go out to a show, go see your friends. It might take planning, but it’s worth it.

Chaser: Some of the most unexpectedly rewarding friendships are those that cross generational lines. Post Grad intern Renee Yaseen wrote about the beauty of befriending one octogenarian as a college student, and what young adults can gain from these relationships.

The sun rises in the East (and the wind, too)

Foreign policy experts, including our columnists, spend a lot of time fretting about economic competition from China. But to University of Oxford researcher Hannah Ritchie, China’s speedy rollout of renewable energy sources is a bright spot in a dreadful climate year: “China’s combination of economic clout, centralized power and rising energy demand put it in a unique position. No other nation is rolling out renewables nearly this fast,” she writes in an op-ed. That technological surge is good for all of us threatened by rising temperatures, she points out.

Of course, as Ritchie notes, China is also the world’s greatest user of coal. But she sees a silver lining in the country’s race to develop wind and solar as energy sources: “In climate terms, it doesn’t matter why countries reduce their carbon emissions, only that they do.”

Melissa A. Sullivan is a military spouse. She is also a remote worker for the federal government, with flexibility about where to live — which has been a big help in keeping her employed, keeping her family fed and, ultimately, allowing her husband to stay with the armed services.

As summer hits, and with it a move to a new location for many military families, Sullivan offers a highly sensible plea on behalf of the military spouses pushed out of the workforce by frequent moves: Offer them better federal opportunities and more remote-work flexibility. “It’s time for the U.S. government to recognize and value such a robust resource — and avoid undermining the readiness of our fighting forces,” she writes.

As other columnists weigh in on whether Ukraine should be admitted into NATO, my colleague Christian Caryl offers a fascinating roundup on what Ukrainians think — and how they are reacting on social media to the lack of a membership invitation out of the alliance’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week. (Say what you will about Twitter, but this report made me grateful both for what survives of that international platform and for having a fellow editor with the language skills to pluck from it.)

Time to check in with the lawyers about frequent legal target and GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump (who, yes, we know, typically wriggles out of these jams with aplomb). Ruth Marcus gets prosecutor Mary McCord’s thoughts on Trump’s lawyers’ request for a delay in the classified-docs case. And Jen Rubin examines a memo from a group of prosecutors and defense attorneys on the Jan. 6 case. They think a Trump indictment from special counsel Jack Smith could be coming — and sooner rather than later.
The United States is not the only country with a pattern of police brutality toward minorities, says Global Opinions contributor Rokhaya Diallo. Take a look at France’s disturbing record.
Our resident satirist, Alexandra Petri, confronts the hideous proliferation of Twitter-clone social networks, all of which we are apparently expected to post on 73 times a day: “I am having the nightmare again. We are all planted in a field. We are mushrooms. We are all consuming the same dead bird. We are all deathless and trapped here in the echoing silence of our own thoughts forever.” Take care of yourself, @petridishes, or whatever you are calling yourself on Threads.