Social Alienation And Loneliness

The role of technology in social alienation and loneliness
In the modern society, a large number of people are suffering from the effects of social isolation. Over the past decades, the most affected population has been the senior citizens who are forced to live in isolation due to their old age and a loss of contact with their friends. The results of alienation are loneliness, vulnerability, and depression. However, with the emergence of information technology, both the senior population and the younger generations have been faced with increased exposure to loneliness as people have greater access and use of different media as opposed to the traditional methods of socialization (Solove 17). Loneliness can be defined as a distressful mental

This ensured that nobody was left out of the development and social activity regarding the operation of the society. On the other hand, history indicates that some traditional societies encouraged and valued solitude such as the Ancient Greek and the Romans Philosophers. Such practices were also encouraged among the medieval Christians (Shapin 197). However, a recent study by Moody (206) exposes an entirely different scenario regarding loneliness and the views that people have about it. The study that was carried out among a target sample group indicates that most of the people would rather participate in something social rather than be secluded in a lonely place. In other words, the modern world that is characterized by globalization, urbanization, and liberalization through technological developments do not consider loneliness to be a positive aspect of the human

The face-to-face communication mechanism is the only method to overcome the adverse effects associated with the virtual connection. This is because the online communication quality cannot match that of the real-world physical get-together. Online communications also lack the traditional use of body signals. As illustrated in the Relationship Australia survey, most of the people spend most of their time on computers and other internet connected gadgets while communicating with other people at the expense of creating social networks which in turn harms relationships and leads to loneliness (Relationships Australia 2015). It is, therefore, important to monitor how a person uses the technological platforms and how much time they spend on them since the individual may develop addictive behaviors by spending more time online and not having the time to build real