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Loneliness is a serious public-health problem:
Doctors and policymakers in the rich world are increasingly worried about loneliness. Campaigns to reduce it have been launched in Britain, Denmark and Australia. In Japan the government has surveyed hikikomori, or "people who shut themselves in their homes". Last year Vivek Murthy, a former surgeon-general of the United States, called loneliness an epidemic, likening its impact on health to obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes per day. In January Theresa May, the British prime minister, appointed a minister for loneliness.
That the problem exists is obvious; its nature and extent are not. Obesity can be measured on scales. But how to weigh an emotion? Researchers start by distinguishing several related conditions. Loneliness is not synonymous with social isolation (how often a person meets or speaks to friends and family) or with solitude (which implies a choice to be alone).
Instead researchers define loneliness as perceived social isolation, a feeling of not having the social contacts one would like. Of course, the objectively isolated are much more likely than the average person to feel lonely. But loneliness can also strike those with seemingly ample friends and family. Nor is loneliness always a bad thing. John Cacioppo, an American psychologist who died in March, called it a reflex honed by natural selection. Early humans would have been at a disadvantage if isolated from a group, he noted, so it makes sense for loneliness to stir a desire for company. Transient loneliness still serves that purpose today. The problem comes when it is prolonged.
[...] A study published in 2010 using this scale estimated that 35% of Americans over 45 were lonely. Of these 45% had felt this way for at least six years; a further 32% for one to five years. In 2013 Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS), by dint of asking a simple question, classed 25% of people aged 52 or over as "sometimes lonely" with an extra 9% "often lonely".
Other evidence points to the extent of isolation. For 41% of Britons over 65, TV or a pet is their main source of company, according to Age UK, a charity. In Japan more than half a million people stay at home for at least six months at a time, making no contact with the outside world, according to a report by the government in 2016. Another government study reckons that 15% of Japanese regularly eat alone. A popular TV show is called "The Solitary Gourmet".
[...] The idea that loneliness is bad for your health is not new. One early job of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Yukon region was to keep tabs on the well-being of gold prospectors who might go months without human contact. Evidence points to the benign power of a social life. Suicides fall during football World Cups, for example, maybe because of the transient feeling of community.
But only recently has medicine studied the links between relationships and health. In 2015 a meta-analysis led by Julianne Holt-Lunstad of Brigham Young University, in Utah, synthesised 70 papers, through which 3.4m participants were followed over an average of seven years. She found that those classed as lonely had a 26% higher risk of dying, and those living alone a 32% higher chance, after accounting for differences in age and health status.
(Score: 4, Funny) by requerdanos on Monday September 10 2018, @04:08PM (11 children)
Great news, introverts. If you get friends--try looking on introvertedlikeme.com--you can stay fat and start smoking with no effects to your health.
The Surgeon General says so.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 10 2018, @05:01PM (10 children)
^^ Pointless bile from a Soylent regular.
If there are a lot of people like you, no wonder so many don't have friends.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 10 2018, @05:22PM (9 children)
That's not pointless bile, that's funny. Your lack of a sense of humor is undoubtedly contributing to the problems you have in this area.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 10 2018, @05:25PM (3 children)
^^ Pointless bile from a Soylent regular.
If there are a lot of people like you, no wonder so many don't have friends...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 10 2018, @07:27PM (2 children)
^^^ Pointless bile from a Soylent regular.
If there are a lot of people like you, no wonder so many don't have friends...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 11 2018, @12:15AM (1 child)
easier by-ref [soylentnews.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 11 2018, @12:51AM
I'd say you could do it without requiring a page reload [soylentnews.org] but it appears I just found another damned bug.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 10 2018, @06:47PM (4 children)
My sense of humor is just fine.
There was no wit or any new insight in that "joke."
If it was a joke, it was just lazy sarcasm. That and puns are the lowest form of "humor."
I mean, did you actually laugh at it? If not, there's your proof it wasn't funny.
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 10 2018, @08:29PM (3 children)
I grinned. It doesn't have to be hilarious to be funny. And I love the hell out of puns. Did your parents order a chick's sense of humor for you or something? Don't you know guys aren't supposed to upgrade our humor plugins? We just add more plugins as we mature.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11 2018, @03:05AM (2 children)
Let's try to raise the bar for what counts as humor on this site.
This was Dane Cook level funny, i.e., obvious and not even trying.
I'd rather read a good Sam Kinison level rant. THAT would be worthy.
Speaking of putting some effort into it, where is Ethanol Fueled? His best ones are funny and funny for the reaction they draw--a classic troll when he's on top of his game.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday September 11 2018, @02:35PM (1 child)
Come to mention it, last post I saw from ETOH, I modded insightful. WTF.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 11 2018, @04:47PM
He's wacky like that. One minute it's blaming the weather on da juice, next he sucker punches you out of left field with something quite insightful.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.