Are you a screen addict? If the answer is yes, you are certainly not alone.
In fact, according to a report by Nielson, the average US adult spends a whopping 10 and a half hours consuming digital media per day. Gen Zs suffer the most – reportedly checking their phones on average 79 times per day, with 80 per cent living in fear that someone may actually ring them.
Today’s young adults also experience high rates of anxiety and depression, which one American study could directly link to the use of multiple social media platforms. Such compulsive, damaging behaviour, which would normally merit a stay in rehab, has instead become so normalised that those who don’t follow suit are in the minority.
However, a digital world is not without its benefits. Zoom, for example, was invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing us to stay connected during what felt like armageddon to many. The real issue is that tech usage has now become so widespread in our society that human interaction in our post-lockdown world is suffering as a result.
One need only look to self-service checkouts to realise that face-to-face contact with other humans is slowly being removed from our daily activities. Even the hospitality industry, once known for its customer service, is jumping on the bandwagon, with Airbnb and other hotel conglomerates now offering self-check-in options.
Needless to say, we are living more comfortable and efficient lives than ever before, but how will such reduced human connection shape our future?
Researching this piece brings my grandma to mind, whose weekly coffee mornings with friends and choir rehearsals bring her great pleasure. However, she is the exception and not the rule.
Many retired people see their social circles shrink to a point whereby ‘transactional’ interactions, i.e. talking to a shop cashier, are the only human communication they get during a week. As technology removes the need for such professions, slowly isolating the elderly and increasing loneliness, it is also impinging upon society’s willingness to care.
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This is because when we communicate online, our brains don’t receive the neural signals necessary to feel empathy. “Little by little, this sort of shallow interaction chips away at our empathic capacities,” according to Dr. Helen Riess’ new book, The Empathy Effect: 7 Neuroscience-Based Keys for Transforming the Way We Live, Love, Work, and Connect Across Differences.
Such desensitisation to human emotion has only been exacerbated by the rise of 24/7 rolling news. As more and more tragedies are live-streamed, our first instinct in some cases is no longer to save lives but to gain social media engagement, as demonstrated in London when bystanders took selfies as a man drowned.
The good news is that emerging immersive technology, such as Extended Reality (XR), is proving invaluable in helping society adapt to the new social norms of the digital era.
Take the previous example. Desensitisation is often an occupational hazard for Health Care Professionals (HCPs) too, who come face to face with human suffering on a daily basis. Yet, an empathetic approach to patients remains essential for optimal clinical results.
French startup VirtualiSurg and Dräger are tackling just that with their new empathy training programme for medical professionals in fully immersive Extended Reality, designed to improve bedside manners when caring for parents of premature babies.
Healthcare professionals are trained to adopt more empathetic approaches during these traumatic and stressful periods for the parents and are able to boost their proficiency in these invaluable soft skills entirely from a virtual environment.
And the benefits of immersive tech are being felt by all ages. For example, Virtual Reality (VR) has been introduced into treatment plans for the elderly and those suffering from cognitive impairments, offering multi-sensory experiences and a sense of escapism hard to come by due to physical restraints. For those suffering from neurocognitive disorders (NCDs), including Alzheimer’s, VR was proven to effectively improve cognition as well as psychological symptoms, such as anxiety.
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Its tangible impact also extends to mental health research and practice. VR is already being harnessed by companies, such as C2C Care, to treat anxiety-related conditions, including addiction and eating disorders.
Their approach sees patients undergo repeated immersion therapy based on Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) principles, whereby they are exposed to highly controlled, real-life triggers of their condition within a virtual 3D space and taught healthier coping mechanisms for the future.
Data tracking of behaviours within these VR experiences can then reveal important characteristics of mental health conditions and inform more accurate assessments and tailored treatments.
These are just a few of the ways in which immersive tech is already positively transforming our world, and the revolution is set to continue as the sector grows exponentially.
So, as Generation Alpha begins to dip its toes into the digital world, let’s remind them that technology can absolutely be a friend, not a foe, as long as it is used to enhance, and not replace, our human connections.
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