Lamontoscar

Loneliness and Social Isolation

In an individualistic culture, members of society are expected to have loosely knitted relations with others, making exceptions for only immediate family members. In a collectivist society, the social culture is the opposite, where adapting a group identity is expected by individuals. In the individualistic culture being used, this can lead to social isolation and loneliness from people that are engaged in Western culture. Both loneliness and social isolation have various affects on a person's development. Loneliness and social isolation can have physical and psychological effects that can either positively or negatively influence their outlook on the rest of society.

Loneliness

Loneliness is defined as, "the unpleasant experience that occurs when a person's network of social relationships is significantly deficient in either quality or quantity" This feeling of having a lack of social connections can affect people of all ages. However, it is more predominant for the elderly population to feel a lonely sensation, with over 50% of their population that is over the age of 80 reported feeling lonely. As for an adolescent, loneliness becomes more of an important factor, and can be influenced by the culture they reside in. During the adolescent stage of life, there are two different types of loneliness that have an impact on the youth's development. The first type of loneliness is involuntary, where the youth is purposefully being isolated from the rest of society without an option to become assimilated. This can have negative physiological and psychological effects on not only youth's, but others who suffer from involuntary loneliness. Those who endure involuntary loneliness have a higher chance of developing mental illnesses such as dementia and Alzheimer's, and can begin having desires to commit suicide. As for the physical effects, loneliness can lead to death at a premature age, and has been linked to high blood pressure, and breast cancer. The other type of loneliness is voluntary loneliness, or otherwise known as solitude. This is when the individual makes an active choice to spend moments in solitude, promoting a healthy mental and physical development. While voluntary and involuntary isolation contain positives and negatives, the relationship between adolescents and the different types of loneliness is complex.

Social Isolation

An individualistic culture also prevents people from making connections in social places, leading to social isolation. With this type of solitude, the person isolates themselves from the rest of society, creating a lack of communication with others, and the inability to develop relationships. A key difference between social isolation and loneliness is that with loneliness you can still be surrounded by others and still have the feeling of isolation, while on the other hand with social isolation there is an almost non-existent line of communication between the individual and the outside world. Social isolation can have a positive or negative effect that are similar to those who suffer from loneliness. Social isolation can lead to depression as well as suicidal thoughts, and can suffer from the same physical ailments as those from loneliness.