Does Social Distancing Give Way to Emotional Distancing?

In this article, Megha Jain and Saurabh Jaiswal throw light on the psychological impact of social distancing in the era of COVID-19 pandemic.

- Megha Jain and Saurabh Jaiswal

Today, when the entire world is struggling hard to find out a permanent solution to COVID-19, aren’t we heading towards bigger ill-treated problem of psychic spacing due to social distancing? Let’s first understand the actual connotation of ‘social-distancing’. According to the World Health Organization, social distancing is ‘to maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) feet distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing’. The problem is further aggravated by the subsequent measures taken by the bureaucrats globally ‘to lockdown’ with the only solution for the corporates to choose ‘work from home’ which may impact the employee productivity invincibly (Source: Harvard Business Review, 2014). Also, it is quite challenging to stay connected while staying away from your loved ones.

Emotional distancing could be inferred directly from ‘E-motional detachment’ which means that in the eventualities of a situation like today, when humans are made immobile (motionless); the ‘E-motional detachment’ could mean a situation where people experience extreme anxiety due to physical spacing with their loved ones. Alternatively, it could be understood that humans are tamed to shift to a different space where ‘E’ means ‘Electronic’ (run through internet/virtual platform) and ‘E-motion’ would be electronic movement (without physical connect). Further, psychologists treat emotional distancing (detachment) as a mental (psychic) disorder. Therefore, ‘Emotional distancing’ could be assumed synonymous to ‘mental spacing’. In a way, the state of ‘being alone’ (social distancing) is steadily transforming to the state of ‘being lonely’ (emotional distancing).