THE PANDEMIC AND US, PART 1
“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” - Nietzsche
The goddamn pandemic has ravaged our world, sickened and killed many millions of us, and made us poorer but, it also gave us a chance to prove ourselves again that we, as humans, are very resilient and adaptable. While feeling the pain of all our losses, we believe that we shall overcome all these difficulties stronger, with the miracle of science, safe vaccines, technology and eventually defeat this pandemic, too.
In the meantime, the fear of the of catching Covid-19, pandemic related lockdowns, protective measures and social distancing requirements have cut us off all from our friends, our family members, our relatives, our workplace and the whole outside world, without any warning or preparations making us worried and feel helpless.
As social creators, this forced lonely life has become unbearable for many of us. But we did not fall apart as predicted. Yes, we feel anxious and bored, but on mass we didn’t develop any major mental problems, clinical depression or PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorders).
We easily discovered that we could work from home or long- distance effectively, with the aid of modern digital and audio- visual technology. Even though, what we missed the most is the in-person contact with our friends and family members as well as socializing. We soon realized that we could maintain our relationships with the people that we care about and love, via phone calls, e-mails, texting and through the virtual technology means such as Skype, Face- time and Zoom.
In reality, we have had no idea as to which one of these methods is the most effective and the best way to communicate with or to show our love and affections that we care about them.
There is an interesting recent study done by researchers on this regard. Researchers put young children in a mildly stressful situation by making them to take an examination in math and verbal skills in front of live audience. Afterwards, researchers randomly asked these children to get in touch with their parents by different means, either by texting, a phone call, in person or not at all. Then researchers then asked children how they felt and check their blood levels for the stress hormone of cortisol and prosocial hormone oxytocin.
Interestingly, texting to parents provided no comfort for children, as if they have no contact at all. But phone calls and hearing the voice of their parents was as comforting as in – person contact with their parents. This was reflected in their expressed feeling words and their blood work results.
So, from this study it seems clear that if we can’t see our loved ones in-person, the next best thing to do is to call them, hear their voice and be herd by them or to use one of the virtual technology methods to see them and talk to them.
PS: Short summary in Turkish: Pandemik ve Biz.
“Bizi olduremiyen bir zorluk, bizi guclendirir.: - Nietzsche.
Amansiz pandemigin sebep oldugu ekonomik guclukler, yasaklar, sosyal izolasyon, yalnizlik hisleri bizleri caresizlik icine dusurdu ve cogumuzu depresyona soktu.En cok ozledigimiz sey dost, arkadas ve sevdiklerimizle gorusememek oldu.Fakat biz modern digital teknoloji yontemlerini kullanarak, temaslarimizi devam ettirmeyi becerdik . Eniyi temas yonteminin ne oldugu konusunda yapilan bir bilimsel arastirmalar gosterdi ki, sahsen gorusmek disinda, en iyi temas metodunun sevdiklerimizin sesini duymayi sagliyan metodlardir, e-mail veya texting degil.
Bu konuda daha fazla bilgi edinmek istiyen okuyucularima, Ingilice metni, Google Turkce’sine cevirip okumalarini ogutlerim.
