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Re-entering into society after Covid lockdowns? Here's how your social skills have potentially altered

May 14, 2021
people laughing and talking outside during daytime
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
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Sandra Salathe

As COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease, many are facing the anxiety of re-entering into society. Over the last year, we've been obligated to remain asocial, and as a result, many of us (myself included) are finding human interaction painfully awkward.

For as long as I can remember, making friends was never a difficult feat to accomplish. To my friends and family, I've always been the most outgoing and bubbly person in the room. While that remains to be true, lately I've found social interactions to be challenging and somewhat strained. Thankfully, now that I'm fully vaccinated, I've been venturing into the real world more frequently.

But I must admit, it was slightly difficult finding my footing in the beginning. Especially where dating is concerned.

Throughout the pandemic, it's safe to assume we've all experienced loneliness and social isolation. If you didn't, congratulations - you're most-likely a sociopath. Now that life is slowly obtaining some semblance of normalcy, it's expected that many of us will feel socially 'rusty'.

After all, being confined to your minuscule apartment and left to bake endless amounts of banana bread each week does little for your social skills. In fact, many experts believe that a lack of everyday social interactions can potentially lead to once-extroverted people feeling socially awkward and anxious.

According to the American Psychological Association, social withdrawal is defined as "limited access to society's resources," and a "lack of adequate opportunity for social experience." When individuals experience social deprivation, it becomes difficult for them to relate to one another. This explains why many individuals might feel like it's becoming more challenging to interact with one another after the pandemic.

Evidence suggests that human interaction is essential for our brains to function and evolve. In fact, a lack of social connection can actually heighten health risks, according to Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University. In a 2015 study, Holt-Lunstad discovered that loneliness and social isolation are twice as harmful to physical and mental health as obesity.

"There is robust evidence that social isolation and loneliness significantly increase risk for premature mortality, and the magnitude of the risk exceeds that of many leading health indicators," Holt­Lunstad says.

So how do we regain control over something that once felt so easy? That part might take a little finesse.

After being in isolation for over a year, entering into society will take some time. For individuals seeking a paralyzing sense experts recommend some form of counseling or therapy. As someone who wholeheartedly believes in the wonders of therapy, I can attest to its magic. When the pandemic first hit, I found myself feeling extremely overwhelmed by the isolation. I immediately turned to therapy and can honestly say it was the most effective forms of self care I've indulged in.

If therapy isn't your thing, Holt-Lunstad recommends intentional acts of kindness and safe volunteering as an antidote to loneliness and the anxiety individuals face as the world returns to normal.

"There's evidence to suggest that those who are chronically lonely may have a cognitive bias — and negative cognitive biases can make it difficult to engage and initiate those kinds of social engagements, [meaning] it may be difficult to kind of make the first move, socially, so to speak," Holt-Lunstad said. "By doing something to help someone else, that can kind of potentially take some of that hesitancy away, because it puts the person in a less vulnerable position because they're focused on helping someone else."

However you decide to move forward, understand that it will take time. It isn't an emotional switch automatically programmed to turn on and off. Be patient with yourself and the rest will eventually follow. If not, there's always countless recipes of banana bread you can resort to.

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.