Understimulated Humans

Has your human become cranky and listless lately? Is your human failing to respond as usual to the simple pleasures of life? If so, your human may be suffering from understimulation. Understimulation due to physical and social isolation is reaching epidemic proportions in humans during this pandemic.

Your face might not be enough

Like us cats, humans are intelligent creatures who need to keep their minds active. They need to see new sights and engage with new objects. If your human has been staying home lately, he or she may be running low on novelty. Think of how much pleasure you get out of a new scratching pad, a new batch of catnip, or a special new toy. Sadly, though, humans do not get any enjoyment out of scratching pads or catnip, and their toys tend to be large and expensive. They are too large to find the interest we do in little things, like watching a bug navigate the length of the kitchen floor. So they are largely out of luck when confined at home.

Humans are also remarkably social. We cats are more social than some of us like to admit, but humans are truly and incorrigibly social, even the more introverted among them. They need to hear human voices and see human faces. Our voices and faces provide some help, but there are limits to what we can do for them in this respect.

Keep doling out affectionate cheek rubs!

So how can a cat help? To some extent we can help by playing with them. If you can make them laugh, you've won the battle of the moment, though perhaps not of the day. Also continue to show them affection, but understand that their need for others of their own species may limit your effectiveness. 


Another important but more passive thing we can do is to be more tolerant than usual of their screen time, provided it is the right kind of screen time. In general, contemporary humans are badly addicted to screens. In the current pandemic, screen use is at record levels. I still hold with a point I made recently, that obsessive news watching is a negative use of screens. However, recent observations now lead me to suggest that watching videos and playing games online may actually be good for humans in the current situation. The videos provide faces, voices, music, scenery and colors, while the games provide appropriately sized spurts of adrenaline and achievable goals. These things may be a poor substitute for social interaction in normal times, but when social interaction is unavailable, they may be very therapeutic.

Granted, it's a little hard to see quite why humans enjoy videos. How can they enjoy anything that has no smell? However, you may find that if you try watching videos along with your humans you may also find them entertaining to some extent. For myself, I enjoy movies that feature a character named Darth Vader.

You may find you enjoy some videos