The prospect of a 19-year-old giving up on companionship \u2013 even non-romantic relationships \u2013 broke Duane’s heart. She moved into action and vowed to advance the essence of what she wrote in that opinion piece<\/a>: The humanities are key to training people to navigate meaningful human connection.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, there are things we can do to encourage communal spaces and communal events, but we have students in classrooms right now and we already have a means of teaching social skills,\u201d she says. \u201cThe arts and humanities help us understand and give us a vocabulary for talking about human motives and emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n Through the Humanities Institute, Duane has begun a year-long focus on loneliness and social isolation, beginning with \u201cLet\u2019s Talk about the Loneliness Epidemic,\u201d a workshop in early October with the CT Collaborative to End Loneliness<\/a> that included a panel discussion with UConn students and alums about their experiences with social isolation and loneliness.<\/p>\n Efforts continued in early November with \u201cPick Up the Thread: A Post-Election Connection,\u201d in conjunction with UConn\u2019s Well-Being Collective, to work on a group fiber arts project to decompress in the wake of a tumultuous political campaign season.<\/p>\n Other events are planned for the spring, and with each Duane says she reflects on the question of how art, literature, and philosophy help people relate to one another. What makes the humanities so special?<\/p>\n \u201cThe humanities, music, and art, we\u2019re always trying to show our utility and our value,\u201d she says. \u201cOver the past 20 years, we\u2019ve devalued the humanities across the board from K to 12 and through college, and now we\u2019re in a loneliness epidemic. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s causal, but we stopped teaching students how to think and talk to each other with empathy and respect. At the same time, screen culture has taken students away from looking each other in the eye.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s a problem, she says, to which everyone has contributed.<\/p>\n Careers are demanding. Work commutes are long. People move away from family. Children\u2019s activity calendars are full. Social media encourages mindless scrolling. Someone else will join the civic club, someone else will head the town committee, someone else will volunteer.<\/p>\n There once was a time, Duane notes, when adults gave themselves permission to use their spare time to cultivate friendships \u2013 to go bowling for no other reason than to spend time with others, for instance. But today\u2019s culture emphasizes utilitarian connections that allow people to get ahead or improve their current state.<\/p>\n She hears this echo even when talking to UConn students.<\/p>\n Students are in competition with each other, so there\u2019s no room for anything but utilitarian connection, they tell her. There\u2019s no time for investing in deep relationships \u2013 if one doesn\u2019t have a 5.0 GPA and isn\u2019t spending hours in the lab, they feel as if they are not sufficiently ambitious.<\/p>\n And joining a club, especially one unrelated to one\u2019s major, often is dismissed as a waste of precious time, rather than a vital part of the college experience, she adds.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you do choose to have friends, they have to be transactional, many students say, and that\u2019s just deadly. What\u2019s more, they\u2019re hearing that pursuing the humanities, studying history, or reading poetry are going to make you poor and unmarketable. No, it won\u2019t. It\u2019ll make you better at whatever career you\u2019re going to choose,\u201d Duane says.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/humanities190130b435-1024x684.jpg\")