The Erosion Of Social Skills

It's not just because of COVID.

A bunch of analysts combined to write an article on “nine trends that will shape work in 2023.” As is common with these articles, most of it is complete bullshit, and it’s vague trends that have either (a) existed for 100 years or (b) based on something Elon Musk once tweeted. In this particular article, if you get down near the bottom, you have something mildly interesting:

Our analysis has made clear that, in fact, it’s not just Gen Z — everyone’s social skills have eroded since 2020. Burnout, exhaustion, and career insecurity erode performance. No one, from any generation, has cracked the code for navigating our new shared professional environment. Focusing exclusively on Gen Z will not adequately address this challenge; organizations must redefine professionalism for their entire workforce.

cc: Gartner

Indeed. This has been covered in other places in mainstream media, too:

• “We’re All Socially Awkward Now.”

• “Is Pandemic Isolation Destroying Our Social Skills?”

• “The Erosion Of Interpersonal Skills.”

Most of the narrative centers around the implications of COVID. I’ve gone there too.

Personally I would say COVID is obviously the easiest factor to point to, but it’s a bigger picture than that. General connectivity has been eroding for far longer than “China Virus” or whatever the political term of the moment for COVID is.

One easy answer, especially in the United States, is that people don’t really know their neighbors anymore at-scale. If you talk to your neighbors, that’s a very easy way to get some social skills muscle-building, because it’s either small talk or localized talk (“Did you see the house on Johnson is up for sale again? Sheesh”) and these are people you see every day and theoretically have some things in common with, at least based on proximity.