Around 2 days ago I was really bored and could not think about something to do, then I started to analyse about human behaviour around this situation. (If you are reading in the future and do not understand, do some googling and see what happened in 2020.) Basically we are locked inside our homes and advised to stay there as long as we do not need to go outside. As a human, it would be totally understandable in this current situation to be lonely, to miss friends, wanting to go outside and enjoy the weather. Suddenly, a question came into my mind : "If I were not locked down, would I want to meet other people outside?" As an introvert myself, the answer is totally no. However, I do want to go outside, but I just don't feel safe to go outside. Does everyone think the same?
So I started a short survey in my social page. I asked a question :
What kills you the most? The fact that...
a. ...you can't meet friends
b. ...you don't feel safe to go outside
c. ...you have to stay at home most of the times.
I added a 'D' option to people who want to share their own personal reason, and this is the result :
I heard this sentence over and over when I was in the elementary. "Humans are social beings, we always need other people's company and we can't live alone." However, this really intrigues me. I do some research about what is the actual definition of 'social beings', and this is what can I sum up : "We humans are social beings; we share mirror neurons that allow us to match each other’s emotions unconsciously and immediately." (Forbes).
So, emotion it is. Communication, feelings are the keywords for social beings. Some researches said that we always need company to survive, but to fulfil our emotion needs, not physical needs. However, this is not what I see in this current situation. The data showed that the majority just want to explore our planet, and the company of others comes second. If this indeed reflects our species, did we already shift from being a social being?
We could not just easily conclude so. Back then company is really defined as physical accompaniment, but in our era it does not have to be like that. I am totally sure, even we are locked down in our homes, most of us still do text or call our loved ones. The desire to physically meet someone is not the biggest urgency anymore, since there are a lot of ways to express and leak our emotions to each other. We are still indeed social beings for the most part, but something already changed us during our evolution as human beings, in what part?
Supermarkets can't close. Imagine what happen if they just close for let's say one week. How many modern starvation cases will emerge? Why I say 'modern'? Starvation happens when someone does not have access to food. But for most of us who live in a developed society, the starvation that will happen is not because we lack of resource; we do have money to buy food, but there is no food to buy.
This simple hypothetical situation actually reveals that we need each other to survive, but not in a sense of emotional support. Yes we still do need emotional support, but physically we could survive without them. Maybe our sanity will be affected, but that's not what I'm discussing right now. I am talking about our survival instinct : to fulfil our energy needs.
We are relying on our economic system. We built them with time, and we are more dependent than ever. There are a lot of threads out there discussing that our economic system should be the second priority on our crisis, our health system should be the first. However, what I found is that we could not separate them. The goal of our health system is to increase our survival chance : giving intensive care for sick people and prevention actions for the healthy ones. But, our economic system is not that different. We need them to keep our society running, keep us alive.
In the most extreme way to define it : our economic system feeds us. Without them, there is no supply chain from the producers to the consumers, and so on. I know that you all totally understand the basic concept of economy we just need to understand, that our economic system is no other than one of our way to increase our survival rate.
The absence of health system may kill some people, especially the sick ones. However, the absence of our economic system will kill us all, without exceptions.
So I started a short survey in my social page. I asked a question :
What kills you the most? The fact that...
a. ...you can't meet friends
b. ...you don't feel safe to go outside
c. ...you have to stay at home most of the times.
I added a 'D' option to people who want to share their own personal reason, and this is the result :
From 123 data, almost 50% voters revealed that the unsafe feeling is the most problematic reason. They still could cope with lack of social contact, but they just want to go outside as usual and enjoy everything. In the second place, around 30% voters said that the fact that they can't meet their friends is the problem. Some even said to me that the unsafe feeling is not new, since sometimes they are afraid to go outside because some reasons, but usually they could still invite their friends over and have fun. Then 10% voters just hate to stay at home, they want to go outside for any reason. One person said that the increment of assignments from uni killed them, and 13 people stated no further personal reason.
This data actually showed how different people are to perceive company from others. This is not a personality test or whatever, but here I want to state that not everyone think the same about living their social life. I would really love to do this survey to a greater mass again, but from this data alone, I think we have to redefine what kind of creature we are.
Are We Indeed Social Beings?
I heard this sentence over and over when I was in the elementary. "Humans are social beings, we always need other people's company and we can't live alone." However, this really intrigues me. I do some research about what is the actual definition of 'social beings', and this is what can I sum up : "We humans are social beings; we share mirror neurons that allow us to match each other’s emotions unconsciously and immediately." (Forbes).
So, emotion it is. Communication, feelings are the keywords for social beings. Some researches said that we always need company to survive, but to fulfil our emotion needs, not physical needs. However, this is not what I see in this current situation. The data showed that the majority just want to explore our planet, and the company of others comes second. If this indeed reflects our species, did we already shift from being a social being?
We could not just easily conclude so. Back then company is really defined as physical accompaniment, but in our era it does not have to be like that. I am totally sure, even we are locked down in our homes, most of us still do text or call our loved ones. The desire to physically meet someone is not the biggest urgency anymore, since there are a lot of ways to express and leak our emotions to each other. We are still indeed social beings for the most part, but something already changed us during our evolution as human beings, in what part?
We Rely On Each Other To Live, More Than Ever
Supermarkets can't close. Imagine what happen if they just close for let's say one week. How many modern starvation cases will emerge? Why I say 'modern'? Starvation happens when someone does not have access to food. But for most of us who live in a developed society, the starvation that will happen is not because we lack of resource; we do have money to buy food, but there is no food to buy.
This simple hypothetical situation actually reveals that we need each other to survive, but not in a sense of emotional support. Yes we still do need emotional support, but physically we could survive without them. Maybe our sanity will be affected, but that's not what I'm discussing right now. I am talking about our survival instinct : to fulfil our energy needs.
We are relying on our economic system. We built them with time, and we are more dependent than ever. There are a lot of threads out there discussing that our economic system should be the second priority on our crisis, our health system should be the first. However, what I found is that we could not separate them. The goal of our health system is to increase our survival chance : giving intensive care for sick people and prevention actions for the healthy ones. But, our economic system is not that different. We need them to keep our society running, keep us alive.
In the most extreme way to define it : our economic system feeds us. Without them, there is no supply chain from the producers to the consumers, and so on. I know that you all totally understand the basic concept of economy we just need to understand, that our economic system is no other than one of our way to increase our survival rate.
The absence of health system may kill some people, especially the sick ones. However, the absence of our economic system will kill us all, without exceptions.
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