Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says
Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says
The Number of People Who Say They Have No One to Confide In Has Risen
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 23, 2006; A03
Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States.
A quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two.
The comprehensive new study paints a sobering picture of an increasingly fragmented America, where intimate social ties — once seen as an integral part of daily life and associated with a host of psychological and civic benefits — are shrinking or nonexistent. In bad times, far more people appear to suffer alone.
“That image of people on roofs after Katrina resonates with me, because those people did not know someone with a car,” said Lynn Smith-Lovin, a Duke University sociologist who helped conduct the study. “There really is less of a safety net of close friends and confidants.”
This article makes me very sad. We’ve lost so much of the social fiber of this country, and the political sphere makes us even more divided. I’m tired of the efforts to keep us divided and divisive. I think a lot of us are longing for a unification of the real American spirit again, if it ever really existed. I’m sure in some ways, we’ve always been a divided people, but there are moments where we really all have pulled together, and I think we long for those moments again.
I suppose that is a big part of the attraction of blogging to me, to be able to share some part of myself with others, even if they only read my musings and silently nod thier heads, or maybe get pissed off at me and go away forever, I don’t know. But being able to share stories and ideas and my current mood here is important to me. It really has helped to decrease my own social isolation after being abandoned by those I thought were my friends, people I had counted on to be there who decided I was too much trouble or had caused them too much grief in the midst of my illness, and simply walked away and refused to speak to me again. I think they truly will never, ever understand just how much that hurt, or the psychotic break it caused for me.
Isolation is a terrible, terrible thing. And I’m truly saddened that more and more of us are feeling that way. I’ve been there, I’ve felt it, and in some ways, I’m glad for the experience, since it truly led me to connect with the Tao, with everything around me, and find my solace in the beauty of nature and the life that is everywhere around us.
But that good close friendship that I once shared with my friends? Yeah, I could used that again. Too bad I’m terrified to let people know how I feel about them anymore, afraid to feel deeply for them, afraid they will walk away again.
Those walls are high and strong. Hope someone someday will have a really long ladder and a big heart.
One Response
Are you and I somehow the same person? Your reaction to this article and my own were nearly identical. Of course, I agree with pretty much everything you write…
OTOH, the one departure between us is that I wear my heart on my sleeve when it comes to people. I just lose them because I don’t make the necessary effort.