When you need to unload your troubles, do you have a confidant on speed dial?

If no such person exists in your life, some believe that could make you die younger. In fact, there is even a school of thought that isolation and loneliness are an epidemic.

Just the word “epidemic” strikes a negative chord with most people. Rightly so!

Think of the Bubonic plague that wiped out millions back in the 14th century. Rather than horribly infected lymph nodes, people today are simply undergoing a dynamic change in their social habits.

No denying, though, isolation and loneliness are both very much a part of modern living. But pegging this shift as an epidemic might be a stretch.

Here’s why.

Being On Your Own

When did you attend your last block party or building gettogether? The kind where everyone brings a dish for the potluck table and you swap pet stories with your neighbors.

If you’ve ever attended a gathering like this during the course of your life, it’s probably been eons ago. The reason is that these sort of functions are going out of existence. While gatherings of this nature were quite common a few decades ago, they’ve quickly become a thing of the past.

Instead of being a part of a group and searching for a place to fit in, people have begun to chase after independence. The entrepreneurs, freelancers, and expats are leading the way in terms of social habits.

The “epidemic” is a general feeling of being on your own instead of belonging to a group. Though, no one has perished from it.

There’s No Substitute

To explore the idea of belonging to a group a little more, it’s not that this desire is dead or unwanted. It’s simply taken on another form altogether. (Granted, this form is not even in the same dimension as the unforgettable block parties of the past.)

What I’m referring to is the life lived on tablets, smartphones, and computers.

Yes, social media.

Mark Zuckerberg and other social media gurus haphazardly vowed that these platforms were the infallible way to bring communities and people closer together. They were to be the epic new block party of the future. Only, the “block” was the world and the “party” was a quick scroll through your feed.

You, like most people, likely connect with hundreds of others through the digital world. And while a certain type of connection is undeniably taking place, face-to-face interactions remain unrivaled when it comes to nurturing relationships.

Social media actually revealed habits that lead to isolation and loneliness. In short, we’ve discovered that there is no substitute for human connection.

Isolation and Loneliness or Social Disconnection?

So, you have to ask whether the bottoming out of block parties or the social media revolution has created an epidemic in society. Have isolation and loneliness both been catapulted to the next supreme level and we don’t even know it?

And is this actually killing us slowly?

While extreme cases of isolation and loneliness are undoubtedly harmful to certain individuals, this epidemic has brought on another event.

More than anything, the feelings surrounding isolation and loneliness have created a profound awareness. Now more than ever, people are deliberately making meaningful connections instead of stumbling upon them at social gatherings.

It’s not exactly that the world is becoming a less social place, it’s that people are approaching socializing in a very different way.

Furthermore, the change isn’t all bad. Recent social changes could be serving isolation and loneliness in epidemic-sized portions. But, a newly found deliberation is swinging the pendulum back to living long, healthy, and social lives.

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If you’re experiencing feelings of isolation and loneliness, please contact me. We can explore your feelings together and help you to reclaim a sense of belonging.