{"text":[[{"start":9.14,"text":"Do you want to go out? "},{"start":10.644,"text":"Meet for a drink? "},{"start":11.949000000000002,"text":"Wouldn’t it be nice to catch up? "},{"start":13.804,"text":"No, not really, thank you very much. "}],[{"start":17.450000000000003,"text":"All of these queries are things I approach with a sense of dread and caution. "},{"start":21.517000000000003,"text":"I love my friends: I adore them. "},{"start":23.822000000000003,"text":"But I hate schlepping across town, crowding into a space and then trying to make conversation. "},{"start":28.677000000000003,"text":"The whole business of socialising feels a bit too much like work. "}],[{"start":33.25,"text":"Besides, few outings could compete with “doing the internet”, those golden moments when, untethered by obligation, domestic chore or husbandry, one can idle hours with only tiny taps. "},{"start":43.653999999999996,"text":"You may clamour about mental health impairment and screen addiction. "},{"start":46.909,"text":"But give me the T-shirt that says: “I’d rather be zombie scrolling. ”"},{"start":50.664,"text":"Why do something, when nothing calls so loud? "}],[{"start":54.45,"text":"Many of us are stuck in this social-media-assisted inertia. "},{"start":58.104,"text":"In a series of charts produced by the New York Times reflecting on how American lives have changed in the five years since the pandemic, the most striking details are those things that have not gone back to what they were before. "},{"start":68.834,"text":"Post-Covid, most habits bounced back almost immediately: we quickly returned to airports and professional hairdressers, for example. "},{"start":76.289,"text":"But we now spend much longer at home, both working and at leisure. "},{"start":80.119,"text":"Since Covid we spend less time socialising: according to the time use survey, the time spent with others has fallen to less than 35 minutes on an average day. "}],[{"start":89.88,"text":"This may be because our brains have been fundamentally altered. "},{"start":93.359,"text":"Studies produced throughout the pandemic found prolonged isolation affected the stress hormones we produce while social bonding. "},{"start":99.789,"text":"Many of us became comfortable among a more bespoke group of companions. "},{"start":103.657,"text":"But living and interacting with a smaller group of people made our brains rusty: isolation has had an impact on our memory and verbal skills. "},{"start":110.97399999999999,"text":"The fact that so many offices are still operating on a part-time basis has further compounded many of these issues. "},{"start":116.917,"text":"These small shifts are playing out in the long term. "},{"start":119.722,"text":"We’re finding it harder to connect with people. "},{"start":122.03899999999999,"text":"We have to practise “making friends”. "}],[{"start":124.94999999999999,"text":"But how alone are we really? "},{"start":127.00399999999999,"text":"For some, the creeping isolation has ushered another pandemic, loneliness. "},{"start":131.547,"text":"For others, the ease of social media and digital connectedness has seen our interactions move online. "},{"start":137.13899999999998,"text":"Is texting multiple friends back and forth while watching The White Lotus the sign of a society plagued by a self-imposed new quarantine? "},{"start":144.29399999999998,"text":"Or merely socialisation 2.0? "},{"start":146.899,"text":"Sofa socialising is cheaper, more comfortable and more efficient. "},{"start":150.85399999999998,"text":"It’s almost certainly safer, too. "},{"start":153.297,"text":"Having lived through one contagion we’ve instinctively become more cautious — see the dip in use of public transport — and we don’t want measles, or avian flu. "}],[{"start":162.69,"text":"Perhaps we’ve stopped seeing friends because it’s no longer easy — too much diarising, and planning, it has zero spontaneity. "},{"start":169.944,"text":"The pandemic helped extinguish the last bastions of casual interaction: the pop-rounds, the call-bys and cup-of-tea-catch-ups that busied past generations are now largely fulfilled by texts. "},{"start":180.299,"text":"We may have got to know our neighbours during the pandemic, but we rarely see them now. "},{"start":184.71699999999998,"text":"In years gone by the sound of a doorbell was almost always a precursor to some kind of social diversion, a scab-kneed infant looking for a roadside football game or someone popping by. "},{"start":194.047,"text":"Today, it’s either the sign of a food delivery or package, or the harbinger of something “weird”. "}],[{"start":200.4,"text":"Socialising is a muscle that needs working. "},{"start":203.24200000000002,"text":"And having spent the best part of two weeks at the seasonal fashion shows, in Milan, and Paris, mine is suffering from overuse. "},{"start":210.447,"text":"I’ve done 12-hour days of full-time small talk; my cognitive skills and recall have hit new lows. "},{"start":216.089,"text":"Maybe I was out of practice, and need to get back in the ring. "},{"start":219.469,"text":"Maybe I’ve hit my annual target and now need to stare at the walls again. "}],[{"start":223.81,"text":"Thankfully, I have observed a new trend in fashion that should cater to my needs. "},{"start":228.177,"text":"It first took hold at Alaïa where models wore giant hoods that would forestall any air-kissing and tops that featured no arm holes, ergo, hug-proof clothes. "},{"start":236.657,"text":"The model’s bodies were garlanded by waistbands, like inflatable buoys, but stylish, from which fell expansive skirts. "},{"start":243.599,"text":"The same generous, exaggerated silhouettes were then seen at Givenchy, Duran Lantink and Saint Laurent, where the models wafted the runway in huge skirts that looked like crinolines. "},{"start":253.617,"text":"Junya Watanabe gave us jagged leather jackets, adorned with aggressive-looking prongs. "},{"start":258.559,"text":"In a world that increasingly shirks from human contact, the looks said “stay away”. "},{"start":262.98900000000003,"text":"The antisocial wardrobe. "},{"start":264.782,"text":"I think it could catch on. "}],[{"start":266.4,"text":""}]],"url":"https://d33mkcasurz97s.cloudfront.net/album/197258-1742119727.mp3"}