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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in six people worldwide is affected by loneliness. This was reported by a WHO commission that dealt with the topic of social relationships. Loneliness and social isolation make people physically ill, contributing to 871,000 deaths worldwide each year.
Loneliness increases the risk of stroke and heart attack, diabetes, depression, anxiety, and suicide, among other things.
Lonely teenagers are 22 percent more likely to get lower grades than their classmates, and lonely adults have a harder time finding or keeping a job. It is not only individuals and families who are affected. Society incurs billions in healthcare costs and losses due to absenteeism from work, for example.
The co-chair of the WHO commission, Vivek Murthy, defines loneliness as follows: “Loneliness is a painful, subjective feeling that many of us experience when we don’t have the relationships we need. In contrast, social isolation is an objective state in which there are few relationships or interactions.”
Parts of communication “get lost”
According to estimates, one in three older people and one in four adolescents are socially isolated, the report says. The causes include illness, poor education and low income, a lack of opportunities for social contact and living alone, as well as digital technologies.
According to Murthy, for thousands of years, people have communicated not only through words, but also through facial expressions, body language, voice, and silence. This is lost when they constantly communicate via cell phones and social media.
Activity cards for young people in Sweden
The WHO cites Sweden as a good example: the country has a national strategy against loneliness, as reported by Swedish Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed. It has been recognized that it is not only lonely people who have a problem, but society as a whole. In Sweden, conscious efforts are now being made in many places to facilitate social contact, for example in shops or restaurants, in neighborhoods or clubs. All children and young people will soon be given gift cards that they can use to book group activities for their free time.
Sweden will ban cell phones in public schools, the minister said. Studies have shown that this increases social contact and reduces cyberbullying. Children and young people sleep better and find it easier to put their cell phones aside in their free time. Children are also often frustrated when their parents are constantly busy with their cell phones, Forssmed said.
Finding cell phone-free times
Digital technologies have their advantages, the commission emphasizes. They enable contact, for example via video, that was previously impossible. Nevertheless, “it is very important to have places and spaces in our lives where we can interact face-to-face with other people without being distracted by technology,” Murthy said.
red, science.ORF.at/agencies
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