Sharing – Loneliness is a social cancer, every bit as alarming as cancer itself
Following up on yesterday’s post about technology and loneliness, and even a topic that also came up on the Moments of Clarity show yesterday too, comes this from Australia. Why is this topic important? See for yourself –
First, loneliness is a killer. An influential meta-analysis, which collated and analysed the results of nearly 150 studies, underlines the impact on health of loneliness, or more specifically, lack of social integration and social support.
It found loneliness increases the risk of death more than such things as poor diet, obesity, alcohol consumption, and lack of exercise, and that it is as harmful as heavy smoking.
Go read the whole thing, I think the four areas of society they point to as being especially lonely can teach us a lot about why this is important, why it is lacking, and maybe spark some ideas on what we can do about it.
