COVID-19 Lockdowns: Their Effect on our Young, and our Future

In the United States of America, the chosen strategy to control COVID-19 has been economic lockdown. Since March, businesses across the country and across industries have been forced to close their doors in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. These lockdowns started as a prudent and temporary measure to slow the growing case numbers in a moment of scientific and medical ignorance surrounding the virus. In the beginning of the pandemic, very little was known about how the virus spread, how dangerous it was, or for whom the risk was highest. During this early phase of the pandemic, it made sense to stop everything and prevent medical and scientific establishments from being overburdened while they worked to provide us with treatment regimens for managing the illness. The hope was that as the knowledge of the virus grew, the severity of the lockdowns could loosen until we ultimately returned to our normal daily lives. We were told that we would not be able to prevent deaths or cases, but that we could “slow the spread” of the virus to a manageable pace. While there were skeptics who noted the serious societal costs, the lockdowns were accepted by the general public under this pretense; that they were temporary.

But as the pandemic has developed, this initial promise of brevity has not born out. Despite the development of robust knowledge regarding the spread and severity of the virus, the response to it has not eased in any meaningful way. What was once “14-Days to Slow The Spread” quietly morphed into “Stop The Spread Of Covid at any Cost Whatsoever”. What’s more, anyone who questions the growing orthodoxy surrounding things like mask wearing, the closing of businesses, or returning children to their schools is accosted, often publicly, as being a “science denier” or as “not caring about others” or is branded as someone who “wants people to die”. The result of this distorted, and often illiberal response to lockdown skepticism is an environment in which the cost and benefits of our response to covid cannot be properly accounted for, and one of those unaccounted costs is the effect the lockdowns are having on our youth.

Before we talk about the effects covid lockdowns are having on our youth, it is prudent to have a discussion centered around what exactly society owes the young. Generally speaking, in order to be owed anything, you usually have to have first given up something of value, something that would only be given up under the condition that the individual responsible for its creation would be compensated for it. The problem with the statement that the young are owed something by society, is then, that generally speaking, the young have not produced or given up anything. For the most part, the young sustain themselves by enjoying the fruits of the labor of others. Their parents and caregivers work to put food on their table, clothes on their backs, and roofs over their heads. The taxpayer pays for their primary education, the roads they drive on, and the maintenance of the government which protects their rights. This is the trouble with the statement that society owes anything to the young. It is because by and large, the young have only consumed from and have not contributed to the “societal pot”. Then, it is in a sense, the young who owe everything to society, and not the other way around.

Of course, society pours the aforementioned resources into the young for very important reasons. Generally speaking, we provide these things to our young because we recognize that the young are an investment for the future. Any sacrifices we have to make to ensure that our young have everything they need to succeed will be paid back to us many times over; when they become our doctors, mechanics, plumbers, lawyers, electricians, and engineers. Society recognizes that our present day youth will one day be the ones driving innovation, solving our problems, and making the world a better place. It is for this reason that parents lovingly provide for their kids, and that the taxpayer graciously supplies their education. We invest in youth because of the belief that society as a whole will be better off in the future if it is populated by educated, strong, and capable young people.

It should be said then, that what society does owe young people is a proper upbringing. The young deserve a formative experience that will prepare them for the challenges of the real world, and will give them the tools to contribute to society in the future. We could make some specifications as to what that might look like. Literacy and numeracy are important. An understanding of science and critical thinking skills are important. The knowledge of how to care for one’s physical health with proper diet and exercise are quite useful. The skills of delaying gratification and problem solving are indispensable. We would want our young to know how to communicate properly, and how to overcome adversity. It would be good if our young had good senses of humor, if they knew how to have fun, and could enjoy and partake in artistic endeavors. We would likely benefit if they have the tools to continue learning even after they become adults. We might want to instill certain characteristics in our children. We would likely want our young to be strong, compassionate, courageous and resilient. It is impossible to create an exhaustive list of all the characteristics and skills we might desire in our young people. Society owes young people a formative experience which cultivates these skills and characteristics because young people’s lives as a whole will be much better with than without those characteristics and skills. And as mentioned earlier, society itself will benefit immeasurably by having an endless supply of talented, and capable youth to assist in the maintenance of our society.

If it can be said that what the young are owed by society is a proper formative experience, it then follows that society can fail its young in one of two ways. It can deprive them of this formative experience altogether, or it can provide them with a proper formative experience and then deprive the young of the opportunities necessary to utilize their talents and character. America’s use of the economic lockdown is damaging our youth in both of these ways.

In the first case, it is obvious that countless children are currently being denied a proper formative experience generally, and that these effects are being worsened by the closure of schools and the general isolation of children and families. It is well documented that since the beginning of the pandemic and the resulting economic peril, rates of domestic violence, child abuse, and substance abuse have all climbed alarmingly. What’s more, the closing of schools forces children into these potentially worsening home lives. One could imagine how these effects could compound by the fact that parents must look after their children 24/7, while adding the stress of having to deal with either having lost a job or working from home. It is also easy to imagine how these trends would hurt less wealthy, already disadvantaged Americans more than the more well off, exacerbating existing inequalities in the children of those groups.

Even if it is the case that a child’s home life has remained stable despite the general trends in the opposite direction, it is still the case that they have seen a decrease in the quality of their education as a result in public schooling being almost completely online. The generation of children who attended school during this time will likely have a skills deficit, the consequences of which are difficult to fully comprehend and calculate. What is certain though, is that these children’s academic and professional lives will be harder, through no fault of their own, than the children who are lucky enough to have started school after the pandemic is over.

Putting aside the quality of education, we ought also consider how school closure and isolation will impact the social lives of our children going forward. We should worry about how kids ceasing to interact with each other in person in their schools could prevent them from forging the powerful bonds of childhood friendship. Simply put, interacting online cannot replace the hard-wired need for in-person interaction, and the relationships developed via online interactions are simply not as resilient, or meaningful as those developed through sustained close personal contact. We might also worry about kids who during this pandemic may be being taught that all strangers are dangerous. Or how universal mask wearing could inhibit young children from absorbing the nuances of social cues and facial expressions. We may also worry about what lessons we are potentially teaching our children about an uninterrogated compliance with social norms or government orders. We should also worry about the downstream effects all of these trends will have on our society. When people lack both strong interpersonal relationships, and the skills to cultivate them in the future, it seems pretty straightforward to envision how societal trust and social cohesion would break down. To put children on this path in the first place is unjust, and to expect that they will be able to contribute to our society in the same way as past generations is foolish.

In the second case, there are of course young people who have received a proper formative experience, but are currently being denied the opportunity to utilize their talents and contribute to society. There are kids who, through good parenting and a strong web of community, have been set up to contribute to society in a fantastic way. However, the state of the current world, and public policy decisions are teaming up to create a situation in which despite the incredible aptitude and ability of the young, they are being disallowed from partaking in and contributing to society in any meaningful way. Take for example recent college grads. For them, the job market is frankly terrible. The high-paying jobs which justified their steeply priced college educations are not available to them for the time being, and may not be for the foreseeable future. Many collegiates who were lucky enough to graduate just prior to the pandemic and successfully land a job have been furloughed or laid-off as a result of economic shutdowns. Many who graduated after the start of the pandemic have settled into minimum wage retail and service jobs at the “essential businesses” allowed to stay open. Others still, have moved into the gig-economy picking up positions as delivery drivers or grocery shoppers. While these jobs may be worth doing for some, they are not the proper allocation of the time and resources of educated, ambitious and capable young people. It is sad to see the immeasurable talents of our nation’s youth being wasted in these types of positions. If these are the types of jobs awaiting the next generation after they leave college, then the money spent on their degrees has, to be frank, been wasted. When we are young, there is only a brief period where most people are unencumbered by the responsibility of children and marriage, and can afford to take the personal risks which lead to fulfilling and meaningful lives. It is incredibly unjust to willingly deny our young these opportunities during the best, and most prospective part of their lives.

Not only is it the case that the young are being denied economic opportunity, but they are being denied the social and cultural experiences which make being young so exhilarating. They cannot work, they cannot go to concerts, they can’t visit the theater, they cannot visit museums, they can’t socialize, and they can’t travel. In the summer, at least the young could enjoy the outdoors, but as winter carries on, and the days get shorter and colder, even that safe haven has all but disappeared. Nearly everything that makes youth the best part of human life is being currently stripped away from our young, and no one it seems, is advocating for them. Rates of mental illness, self harm, and suicide were already on the rise in our young people prior to the pandemic. One can expect that these trends will get even worse, even faster, if the young are obstructed from everything which makes life worth living.

These effects on our young are just one of the many prices we pay for the continual lock down of our society. These costs are just a tiny fraction among many others, which have all too often gone unaccounted for, as the pandemic stretches into nearly a year of lockdown. The toll these policies take on our young though, are especially pernicious, because of what they may mean for the future of our society. What happens to a society that prevents its young from living meaningful lives? What happens to a society that gives the young nothing in return for its maintenance? What happens when a society has no social bondage, and is filled with anxious, damaged, and isolated people? The answer to these quandaries can be taught by the annals of history. Societies composed in this way crumble. The young who have been stifled will simply tear everything down, and what would stop them? They would have nothing to lose.

Now it is the case that we may very well be at the tail end of this tragedy. Promising vaccine candidates are being distributed as I type these words, but it could also be the case that those vaccines will fail. It could very well be the case that the virus will mutate to a form unaffected by the current vaccine candidates. It could very well be the case that man has entered into a race with nature that we cannot possibly win. If this is the reality we find ourselves in, and we continue to deal with the virus with lockdowns, we will succeed not in crushing the virus, but instead in crushing the human spirit.

To those who doubt this, and especially the elder among us, for whom these lockdown policies are supposedly being enacted to protect; I ask that you reflect on your own lives for a moment. Think on your youth. Fill your mind with the memories of relationships come and gone, of friends lost and lovers moved on. Remind yourself of the concerts, the movies, the museums, and the parties. Think of the travel, the places unknown and the culture absorbed. Reminisce on the late summer nights, the wild rides and unexpected adventures. Feel the uneasiness of a new job, and the accompanied hope of earning a better future. Remember the feeling of freedom, the taking of risks and the reaped rewards. Think of the family dinners, the holiday visits, the endless laughter and the closeness of a crowded dinner table. Enjoy the memory of relatives past, and notice how lucky you were to have the time with them that you did. Feel the warmth of the company of others, the first time embrace of a new friend, and the rush of a stranger’s smile. Now think on how many of these experiences, feelings, people, and memories you would have been deprived of had these sorts of policies been enacted during your youth. These, and countless unknowable experiences, feelings, people and memories are currently and actively being denied from millions upon millions of our young people every second these policies continue. This, a meaningful life, or maybe a fulfilled soul, is the ultimate price we pay for lockdown. Ask yourself: would your life have been worth living without any of it? Will the last few years of your life be worth living without any more of it? Would you want your children or grandchildren to live a life without any of it? The answer to any sane person ought to be a swift and decisive no to all. For it is not enough simply to survive; life should be LIVED.

To conclude, it is clear that a continuation of lockdown policies harms our youth in numerous, and quite serious ways. These harms have direct consequences; by denying people the best part of their lives, and will also harm our society in the future. It is a moral imperative that we return to the drawing board and craft workable solutions for our society, which ultimately return us to the lives we had prior to the pandemic. Failing to do so, and continuing to deal with the virus in this way jeopardizes our society itself, and is ultimately incompatible with a meaningful life, and the flourishing of the human spirit.