Paula Byrne: uncertainty

Transcript context

…Why do you think it’s gotten worse? Because I don’t know. Again, people will blame social media, and to some extent it’s that. A lot of children are really lonely. Both parents work, and they often go home to an empty house. I’ve just heard such horrific stories about there’s no community. America’s great for community, but we don’t really have that sense of community anymore, which I think is so important. I don’t know, churches or whatever — having a sense of community is really important, and we just don’t have that anymore, and I think that’s a problem. There are all sorts of things. I do think social media plays a part. Honestly, it’s fascinating. I think about it all the time. I’m like, “Why have we got this bad? What’s happened? Why are we in this state that we’re in?” I think it is lack of connection, a real meaningful connection. Now, one hears often of a human capital crisis in Northern England in particular, which, of course, is where you’re from. How would you diagnose that? Because it did not exist in earlier times. What has happened there? Is it just deindustrialization, or there’s something else in the story?…

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