Craig Haney
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The psychological impact of COVID-19 isolation, as explained by scientists
America was already in the depths of a public health crisis when the coronavirus outbreak hit: one of social isolation and loneliness. Cigna's 2020 Loneliness Index notes that three in five Americans report a persistent sense of loneliness, a seven point jump from the previous 2018 study. Young people, ages 18 - 22 and men were most likely to report feelings of isolation with heavy social media users "significantly more likely to feel alone, isolated, left out and without companionship." Now, as broad swaths of America hunkers down for the foreseeable future to wait out the COVID-19 pandemic, our online social media usage is set to spike. But will our feelings of despondency and loneliness do so as well?
