What are the most useful skills to learn while social distancing?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: What are the most useful skills to learn while social distancing?
Position‹4 of 5›: Domestic skills
Argument‹2 of 3›: Be a good neighbour

Look out for those that live beside you and might not be able to go outside.

The argument

Being a good neighbour during lockdown is especially important because we have lost access to many conventional support networks which formal social support services are overwhelmed by the pandemic. Because of this, it is increasingly important for people to practice being a good neighbour. Looking out for one another and offering help where possible can alleviate the burden of the social sector, allowing the scarce resource we do have resources to be diverted to those who need them most. The elderly and those with pre-existing conditions are among the most vulnerable, both because they are susceptible to Covid19 and also because they are more dependant on social services. Therefore, when these safety nets are overwhelmed and limited, it is important for others to step in and help in any way they can. Being a good neighbour is simple and but can be a valuable use of time. It can be as simple as offering to pick up and deliver groceries for someone or calling them up and having a chat. Those living alone are another vulnerable population as loneliness can lead to depression, so it is important to check in with those who have no one around. Being a good neighbour can make all the difference to those who are struggling most throughout the pandemic and it comes at little personal cost. Overall, being a good neighbour is going to make someone else's life easier during these hard time. Offering to help the vulnerable to protect them from the virus may save their life and contributes to 'flattening the curve' of the pandemic.

Premises

[P1]The pandemic has overwhelmed formal social support services and cut people off from conventional support networks, leaving vulnerable groups like the elderly and those living alone underserved. [P2] Ordinary neighbours can fill these gaps at little personal cost through simple acts like delivering groceries or checking in by phone. [P3] Practising these neighbourly skills both eases individual suffering and helps flatten the curve by protecting the most vulnerable from exposure. [C] Therefore, learning to be a good neighbour is one of the most useful domestic skills to develop during social distancing.

Counter-arguments

One might question whether 'being a good neighbour' is a skill to learn at all, still less a domestic one. Critics could argue it describes a disposition or civic act rather than a teachable competency like cooking or budgeting, so it fits awkwardly under 'domestic skills' and competes weakly against the genuinely learnable options — language, digital or writing skills — that the question asks about. There is also a practical tension with distancing itself: picking up groceries or visiting the isolated involves the very contact public-health guidance sought to minimise, and for the clinically vulnerable, well-meaning neighbourly help can carry infection risk. The benefit is real, but as an answer to 'the most useful skill to learn,' kindness is arguably a virtue to practise rather than a skill to acquire.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Being a good neighbour is a disposition or civic act rather than a teachable skill, so it fits awkwardly as an answer to which skills are most useful to learn. [Rejecting P2] Neighbourly help such as shopping or visiting involves the very contact distancing sought to reduce, so it can carry infection risk to the vulnerable it aims to protect.