By Madison Fessler / Jambar Contributor
In 2023, the United States Surgeon General’s office released an advisory which stated that the loneliness epidemic is an urgent public health issue.
Associate professor of psychology, Joy Tang, defined the loneliness epidemic as “the increasing prevalence of people feeling lonely in society.”
The terms “social isolation” and “loneliness” have been thrown around on social media, but the words don’t share a definition.
“Social isolation usually is pertaining to more of the objective disconnection between people, but loneliness is more of the psychological, subjective experience of feeling disconnected from other people,” Tang said.
According to the advisory, around half of adults living in the U.S. reported experiencing loneliness, with young adults having some of the highest rates. Despite the high rate, less than 20% of lonely people realize it’s a major problem.
Susan D. Laird, who is an adjunct faculty member in the Sociology Department, said one of the big factors that plays into social isolation and loneliness is technology.
“We have to be cognizant that when they developed the first PC, it stood for personal computer. That’s yours, not a shared entity,” Laird said. “It became you as an individual, and how you could make that look and what you could do with it, and we’ve never gotten away from that.”
Laird also said lack of government interference, until recently, and social media has contributed to mass loneliness.
“I believe that our government has not paid attention to the isolation that comes with social media and some of the dangers on social media, but as well as the misperception that if you have 3,000 friends on Facebook or a million followers on Instagram, somehow you’re connected and you’re not isolated.”
Tang contributed an increase in mass loneliness to a shift in society.
“We live in a very materialistic world, there is a pressure to potentially, maybe possess more and to be more materially successful. Our focus is on a lot of the career development, personal development which takes away the efforts and the attention that we can pay to relationships,” Tang said.
The shift in society affects the quality of relationships and connections. Tang attributed this not only to the shift but also to the decline in community engagement.
“In the past few decades, you can see pretty clearly that people are spending less time with each other in all aspects of social life,” Tang said. “They’re spending less time with organizations, communities, faith groups, they are engaging in just overall less quality relationships and connection with those around them.”
Laird said the effects of mass loneliness are severe and damage not only a person but a community severely.
“We’ve seen an increase in our drug use, we’ve seen an increase in our suicide rates, not just in our community, but across the country,” Laird said.
Extreme loneliness leads to more than just poor mental health, it has devastating effects on physical health as well.
In the advisory, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy described the effects of loneliness as, “far more than a bad feeling – it harms both individual and societal health. It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety and premature death.”
Erin Driscoll, executive director of Student Experience and Resident Life, said YSU offers many opportunities throughout the year to engage and build connections with other students.
“Every week, we send out our Student Events Digest, and that has a list of some of the programs that are happening,” Driscoll said. “[Crafternoons at the Cove], it might be hard to just approach someone and start talking, but if you’re working on a project next to someone, sometimes that conversation can just start to develop there.”
Becoming part of any organization or reaching out to friends can help feelings of loneliness and in turn can save lives.
