Kristen Gyles | Rat race to extinction

A few decades ago, John Calhoun, an expert in animal behaviour, set up an experiment involving eight white mice. He put them in what we can call ‘mouse heaven’.  On day one of the experiment, the four male and four female mice got moved into a large, spacious tank with an endless supply of food. 

The tank was nicely designed with 16 stairwells, each leading to numerous nesting boxes large enough to hold 15 mice. The tank also had walls that the mice could climb and tools to keep themselves entertained. The temperature inside the tank was stable, the environment was controlled and predators were kept out. Life was nice. This little mouse hotel had everything a mouse could want.

So, initially, these eight mice had the privilege of occupying a tank with enough space and resources for 3,840 mice. As expected, they soon started making babies, and at first, the mouse population doubled every 55 days. During this time, the mice lived in relative peace and harmony. However, by the end of year one, when the population had increased to 620, this perfect mouse society started to crack. 

Unexpectedly, the behaviour of these mice took a sharp downturn. As the mouse population ballooned, male mice started to form cliques and became violent. Mom mice started to abandon their young and would even turn on them. Some nesting boxes became extremely overcrowded while others only inches away stayed empty. The mice started acting a fool and adopted some strange and pretty antisocial behaviours. 

Most interesting was the emergence of a phenomenon where some mice would totally isolate themselves from society and would do nothing but eat, sleep and lick themselves to keep their hair looking flawless. Because they kept out of mouse society, they also had no scratches or scars and were therefore nicknamed the ‘beautiful ones’ by the researcher. These beauties stopped socializing and lost all interest in mating. Apparently, they had gotten so tired and worn out from the social interaction overload that they simply withdrew. As this type of thing became more prevalent, the population started to decline until after four years and 10 months, the mice went extinct. 

In the end, Calhoun’s conclusion was that the mice could not effectively deal with the repeated contact with so many other mice. Overstimulation. Overexposure. Overwhelm.

Sounds familiar?

Especially now, when there are so many talks in so many countries about a globally declining birth rate and a declining interest in marriage and sex, it is hard not to wonder if we aren't like those mice - running a rat race to extinction. It is tempting to think that we are less social now than ever before, simply because the kids aren't outside playing marbles and ‘dandy shandy’ and because the adults are no longer congregating on each other's verandahs for communal gossip. But social interaction does not need to be face to face.

At the end of a long day, many of us go through the same routine. We collapse into the couch and start scrolling. We check WhatsApp. We watch all the status updates. We check Instagram. Then Facebook. Maybe TikTok. Maybe even LinkedIn. Believe it or not, all this amounts to social interaction. Browsing through one friend’s vacation photos, then processing that other friend’s political rant, then this cousin’s promotion announcement, then that other relative’s opinion on the church and religion…  is all social. During this time, we are digesting large chunks of information about people we know, reading facial cues, decoding confusing emotional signals, interpreting tone, body language and paralinguistics and forming opinions of our own.

That is exactly what you do when you meet with someone in person. Despite not saying a word, the brain still has to process so much every time we scroll and consume something else. Social media has exposed us to far more social activity than our minds were probably designed to handle on a consistent basis. That is why doomscrolling is so draining and never energizing. The mistake we have been making is thinking of social media as passive entertainment. It isn't. It is social participation. Many people maintain hundreds or even thousands of digital connections while simultaneously being exposed to the thoughts, achievements, emotions, and expectations of countless others. 

The irony is that social media was built to connect us. And in many ways, it has - but probably at the expense of sound and stable social and emotional health. Humans need solitude as much as they need companionship. We need moments when nobody requires our attention, our reaction, or our emotional energy. Social media has made those moments increasingly rare.

The result? Drained and exhausted young people who have only enough energy to lift their thumbs and keep scrolling. As we connect more online, we connect less in person, because we just don’t have the energy. What can rescue the human spirit?

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com