Loneliness has become common among the people in developed societies. As per the US data published in 2018, approximately 50 million people suffer from loneliness and which was 43 million in 2010. A British campaign in 2016 found that 84% people in Britain experience loneliness. In 2022, an Indian study revealed the presence of loneliness among 20% of adults above the age of 45. Studies after COVID pandemic have noted a robust increase in these numbers all over the world.
People usually engage a lot in social media these days. It is interesting to note that even when the people have plenty of friends in these social media platform their loneliness increase significantly. Therefore, loneliness is not all about having the presence or absence of people around. It is about the gap between quantity and quality of actual and desired social relationships.
Panorama Fr. Jo Paul Kiriyanthan
There are two interesting studies about lone- liness and its impact in general health. In 2000, Lisa Berkman, an American epidemiologist who currently works as the Professor of Public Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health at Harvard conducted a study. She followed sick people both isolated and highly connected over nine years to see who dies earlier than the other group. This study concluded that isolated people were three times more likely to die
Another experimental study among lonely people was co- ordinated by Sheldon Cohen, a Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in 2005. He is the director of the Laboratory for the Study of Stress, Immunity and Disease. Sheldon Cohen gathered a group of people and recorded their loneliness rate and social connection rate by question- naire. He divided the group into connected ones and lonely ones. He exposed them to cold virus in the lab. Results concluded that lonely people were more vulnerable to the disease.
It’s high time that the society takes rather seriously the problem of loneliness among people. The number is alarm- ing, so as the psycho-somatic impact of loneliness. More care and concern is needed to reinstate the original value of family relationships which is the nucleus of deep and lasting relationships. Moreover, values like sincere friendships, better working relationships in social groups, effective collaboration and teamwork in work areas, more transparency in social media, and better psychological mindedness among individuals might bring effective results in satisfying relationships and gradually lessen the experience of loneliness.