Irish Examiner view: Lonely are vulnerable in a dark world

The impact and scope of the practice of looking for companionship and meaning in all the wrong places is not yet fully apparent. File Picture: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

A new book ponders a fresh, and worldwide, epidemic. But one that rarely speaks its name: Loneliness.

In the years following the social isolation imposed by covid-19, author Gyan Yankovich says people are reconsidering the values of friendship and the health benefits it brings.

Our quest for connectivity with other human beings while — paradoxically — many of us remain socially alienated, has increased dramatically with the ubiquity of smartphones and computers.

And that phenomenon was underlined by one of the stranger, and largely unnoticed, stories of recent times in Ireland; one which was covered comprehensively by Sorcha Crowley in Saturday’s Irish Examiner.

This focused on claims that financial debt incurred as a result of “gifting” — via the TikTok platform — may have been a contributory factor in the recent suicide of a Munster woman. An inquest into her death has yet to take place.

This alternative world, and that of virtual gaming as distinct to gambling, is often regarded as the province of the young, hip, and nerdish. However, in this case, the woman was a middle-aged healthcare professional and mother.

TikTok has, since 2019, possessed a feature which allows users to reward content creators by pledging “gifts” (animated emojis or cartoons). Once a certain level has been reached, recipients can cash out — transferring currency into their account, using PayPal.

TikTok takes a 50% cut of the net revenue of the gifts.

We can see who gains from this, but what on earth is in it for the donor? Usually, it’s just a “call-out” expressing gratitude from the grateful beneficiary.

Stephen Murphy of Trinity Business School says this allows gift-givers to “feel like they have real relationships with the content creators they follow”.

“The more generous the gift they give, the bigger the reaction they will receive from their beloved content creator,” he says. “The difficulty with this is that, despite their casual presentation, live streams are highly curated and designed to make users feel like the connection is real.”

The impact and scope of this practice of looking for companionship and meaning in all the wrong places is not yet fully apparent, nor is it confined to gifting. The video-gaming industry also has a prolific hinterland of unregulated in-app gambling, along with the subterranean development of alternative economies.

Which brings us back to real-life friends. They’re the ones who encourage us to live healthier lives and are the first to let us know when we need to get help, whether it is from a doctor or therapist, Ms Yankovich says. We all need them.

World Cancer Day

There are many who look back fondly on the Jack Lynch era. Six All-Irelands in a row; sacking Charles Haughey; leading negotiations to join the European Economic Community; a landslide general election victory; free secondary education. There’s plenty on the credit side of the balance sheet.

So to find his name brought up as a negative might produce something of a double take. Until you realise that it is to make an effective point about the need to modernise our health
infrastructure. Cork University Hospital’s clinical director of cancer services and oncologist Prof Seamus O’Reilly commented ahead of World Cancer Day pointing out fundamental weaknesses in what can be offered to patients.

A national taskforce is urgently needed as cancer patients suffer knock-on effects from overcrowding and outdated infrastructure, with welfare and staff retention being affected by the lack of modern buildings, he said.

“We are struggling with Jack Lynch-era infrastructure in the main hospital block in CUH, which isn’t fit for purpose anymore,” he added. “We need a Micheál Martin oncology in-patient unit.”

The theme of World Cancer Day yesterday was a call to Close the Care Gap. While volumes have increased, capacity hasn’t and there have been clear demands that the provision of resources and facilities need to be planned on a national, rather than local or regional, basis. The call is for investment in 21st-century buildings to match modern medical care and contemporary expectations of the dignity of patients, objectives which might assist our medical staff to resist the blandishments of competing international health systems.

Somehow you think Jack Lynch would have agreed.

Airport security

Time has long passed since it was possible to represent flying as a pleasurable experience, part of a continuum which commenced with a leisurely wander through duty free; a gin and free pretzels on board, and a smooth landing in some exotic location, possibly to be met by friends or relatives who had been allowed airside.

All of that was once possible. But international terrorism put paid to it. Biometric passports; baggage restrictions; long queues; removing shoes; huge bureaucracy; armed police and military; intrusive screening; a global glut of undersized plastic bags and cutlery; and much more.

We should not be surprised if new, and potentially irritating, measures crop up at short notice. Among those can be included the comparatively recent (at least for Cork and Dublin) instruction that travellers must remove hoodies alongside “loose, oversize jumpers or sweaters” and place them in plastic trays for screening.

This has always been a requirement for jackets and coats and is a common demand at many overseas terminals. We’ve done well to escape it so far. 

To use that old expression, just suck it up, and get through as quickly as you can. We might be in the queue behind you.