With technology today we are able to connect with people from all over the world, but are we really connected? When we think about loneliness and isolation we often think about the elderly population in our society. Today the age for isolation is expanding into a much younger age group. People thirty and even into twenty years of age are more disconnected from society and have concerns of loneliness and depression. They are using their computers and phones as an alternative means of communication leaving the physical world behind. In 2008 a study done by UNESCO Institute for Statistics show that people in the US and UK spend over 28 hours a week on the computer.
After surveying 21 people ages 20 through 35 years old I found that this population spent an average of 16 hours a week watching television and spent an average of 21 hours a week calling and text messaging people on their cell phones. Only 10 hours a week were spent with friends/or family in a physical setting. When asked the same group of people if they were happy 35% strongly disagreed, 25% neither agreed nor disagreed.
Our technological lifestyles are causing us real emotional and physical health problems. There is considerable proof that the extent to which social relationships is strong and supportive is related to the health of the individuals who live in the social setting. Even the results from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) show that people with the highest social connections had the lowest rate of memory loss from 1998 to 2004. Recent studies even show that social support is linked to survival of healing after an illness and health emergency for example post myocardial infarction, or heart attack. Someone who has the support of their family and community is more likely to heal and gain wellness verses someone who does not have a social network.
Psychoneuroimmunology or Behavioral Medicine is the link between the nervous systems and the relationship between mental and health processes. This shows that our immune systems are connected with our brain in some way and is influenced by external factors such as mental, emotional processes (moods and feelings). This proves that what we think and feel can have real affects on our physical responses, specifically our immune systems. Robert Ader of Rochester University and researcher of PNI states," we are not talking about causation of disease, but the interaction between psychosocial events, coping and pre-existing biologic conditions." Mind Body Medicine gives us the understanding of how states of mind can affect our health. Stressors that occur over a long period of time, more than one or two years, can break down the immune system leading to an increase risk in physical illness and the likelihood of becoming depressed (Rashmi Nemade, Ph.D., Natalie Staats Reiss, Ph.D., and Mark Dombeck, Ph.D.)
So in the study of Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) it is not that new car, the big house with a pool or the new trainers purchased last week, but how we are connected and our close connection with our family, friends and communities that has everything to do with our health and wellness. So if we are disconnecting ourselves from our physical social world, what we need most to keep us healthy where are we heading as a society? Depressed, suicidal, emotionally and physically sick?
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