Distancing - Social or Otherwise?

I am constantly amused by the phrase of the year popping up on almost every form of media these days - Social distancing! It's as much of an oxymoron as any. Distancing can hardly be described as Social. One would imagine, given the conditions in "lockdown" mode, that the distancing needs to be physical more than anything else. If you want to coin a cute phrase call it anything else but not social distancing. It's Physical Distancing that is the need of the hour. Here's my take on it.

With the advent and virus-like spread of social media, distancing has had an equal and opposite effect especially on those who use their devices to stay in touch! It's quite common to see a bunch of young people sitting back-to-back around a table, all facing outwards, communicating with other people who are not physically there! The physical distance isn't felt and has been replaced by social togetherness. However, the people with whom they share their backs are too close for comfort (and viruses). We really don't need to meet, or transmit infection, to be in touch.

The current crisis has, for many of us, brought us closer together. On the social side, people we may not have chatted with for some time, family and friends, are now way up the list -- we are sending more messages per hour than we did earlier. I am discounting the memes, forwards and jokes which have actually overshot all expectations. For those who are working from home (buzz word "WFH") the situation is more interesting. New social alliances are being worked out - people we generally avoided for whatever reason, we now need to talk to. Zoom and Teams, Skype and a plethora of other video chat tools are now used for doing serious work. One bright offshoot of this is described below.

Last week we held a review of a project we are doing. Normally this would take ages to get everyone at the same time, stragglers walking in late, all talking together around a table, and perhaps some action points would be floated at the end of the meeting -- usually a few days later. This meeting, on the other hand, went extremely well. The invitation had been floated well in advance, automatic reminders went out, everyone logged in on time, the meeting was recorded and since the tool we used allows just 40 minutes, decisions were reached pretty quickly. It did prompt one of us to remark that our productivity seems to have shot up due to "social distancing"! And it did. Results of that meeting were seen in 48 hours.

Social Distancing has brought communities together. In an effort to ensure that the virus cannot spread or in order to "flatten the curve" (I'm getting them all in here!) the residents at our complex have invited the security guards to stay over, providing meals and other amenities for the lockdown period. The guards haven't agreed as they have families at home and can reach the complex on foot, armed with their "essential services" letters. Meanwhile, people are falling over themselves to "manage" the morning tea, the breakfast, the evening snack -- and all this is happening on WhatsApp! Moreover, maids, drivers and other service providers have been given off for the period. Continuous supply of sanitizer, compulsory washing of hands and keeping your families indoors are all hot topics on the groups! On the upside everyone is showing a lot of concern for each other, maintaining physical distance and hygiene on the one hand and spreading all sorts of suspect "news", videos, opinions from medical experts, counter-opinions from other experts, legal opinion and more. We have all become Doctorates in the subject, degrees from WhatsApp University. Thankfully grandstanding has taken a backseat as we all practice distancing from political and religious posts, though a few stray references to some occult predictions have popped up.

"Heal the world, make it a better place" - the song has been doing the rounds lately. I am sure once we get out of this (not "if", "when") we will be a more obliging community, with better ways to communicate and socialize without physical presence. Meanwhile, use this lag time to build - build on knowledge, on reading, on hobbies, there's so much to do.

Stay safe! Stay home!