‘It could result in a pandemic of loneliness’: Peers report on how digital Covid lives altered wellbeing

Despite the obvious perks that the online world brought when our world changed overnight, there are long-term implications of moving to a digitised world – especially when many are still lacking basic access to the internet and thus risk being further shut out down the line. To presume that technology is universally the great leveller is a mistake. The House of Lords today publishes a report, “Beyond Digital: Planning for a Hybrid World”, looking at our digital futures. The report highlights the risk that this could have in developing a “pandemic of loneliness”. This is already well reported. According to a survey of UK adults by the Mental Health Foundation, which took place nine months into Covid-19 restrictions in late November, one in four (24 per cent) said they had feelings of loneliness in the “previous two weeks”. Figures from ONS suggested that in the first lockdown about 2.6 million adults felt lonely “often” or “always”.