Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works. Hey there,
Speaker 1: brain stuff, Lauren vogelbam here. When British Prime Minister Theresa
Speaker 1: May proclaimed a new Minister for Loneliness in January, some
Speaker 1: people were a little incredulous. Stephen Colbert jibed, this is
Speaker 1: so British. They've defined the most ineffable human problem and
Speaker 1: come up with the most cold, bureaucratic solution. The Bricks
Speaker 1: already had a loneliness commission. It was the project of
Speaker 1: Joe Cox, the member of Parliament who was murdered in
Speaker 1: continuing this loneliness work is a statement in her memory.
Speaker 1: But loneliness has become an increasing object of study as
Speaker 1: researchers try to quantify what was once simply considered a
Speaker 1: matter of the heart. Many researchers say loneliness is a
Speaker 1: growing problem, but is that true? Are people really more
Speaker 1: lonely than they used to be? In Britain, one person
Speaker 1: in ten is said to be lonely, and last year
Speaker 1: a Brigham Young professor laid out the evidence for an
Speaker 1: epidemic of loneliness before the U S Senate Aging Committee.
Speaker 1: Psychologist Lean Holt Lunstead told the group that the average
Speaker 1: size of American social networks is decreasing, and more than
Speaker 1: eight million older adults are now socially isolated. Behavioral scientist
Speaker 1: Brian Primack with the University of Pittsburgh also gives the
Speaker 1: idea credence. He said, there are a lot of different
Speaker 1: trends in society that make an increase in loneliness more likely.
Speaker 1: There are fewer and fewer ways to connect with individuals
Speaker 1: in person. Primic is among researchers measuring the connection between
Speaker 1: social media and loneliness. Historically, people lived in smaller spaces
Speaker 1: with larger families, but modern America is an individualistic society.
Speaker 1: He pointed out. Everyone has their own car, their own room,
Speaker 1: their own TV. There's much less of a sense of sharing.
Speaker 1: But we are social creatures who over time developed face
Speaker 1: to face ways of interacting using eye contact, gestures and
Speaker 1: other methods. He said, We're not interacting as much face
Speaker 1: to face anymore. We're using screens and automated menus instead.
Speaker 1: The automation of so many things makes it less likely
Speaker 1: to interact with other humans. According to Primic, those little
Speaker 1: things do add up. A study done by Primic and
Speaker 1: his colleagues showed a strong relation between social media use
Speaker 1: and loneliness. Their survey of one thousand, seven hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty seven young adults showed that those who visited social
Speaker 1: media sites more than fifty eight times a week were
Speaker 1: three times more likely to be lonely than in frequent users.
Speaker 1: Those who used social media two hours a day were
Speaker 1: twice as likely to be lonely. Primic said every amount
Speaker 1: of social media use is associated with an increase, but
Speaker 1: Hector L. Carl recently got a bit huffy in the
Speaker 1: Huffington's post about the subject. He's a researcher in cognitive
Speaker 1: systems and interactive media at the Institute for Bioengineering of
Speaker 1: Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. Smartphones are instruments of communication, he wrote,
Speaker 1: not devices that reduce it. People on social media have
Speaker 1: larger social networks and they're connecting in new ways. In
Speaker 1: a recent email with us, he agreed that some uses
Speaker 1: of smartphones or social media can be harmful and that
Speaker 1: some people get addicted, but said it's unfair to simply
Speaker 1: say that social media is ruining as socially because I
Speaker 1: believe that its effects are mostly positive. Primic is quick
Speaker 1: to say that his study only showed tendencies, these results
Speaker 1: can't be applied to everyone. People use social media in
Speaker 1: different ways, from liking cute pictures to badgering strangers over politics.
Speaker 1: Research can point out positive uses versus negative ones. He said,
Speaker 1: But is this just a new take on an old problem.
Speaker 1: Whether loneliness is increasing or not, there seems to be
Speaker 1: a change in the way we discuss it. Appointing a
Speaker 1: Minister of Feelings seems to put the primary approach on
Speaker 1: feelings rather than the social conditions that lead to them.
Speaker 1: And as for research, biologists and neuroscientists are now investigating
Speaker 1: the things that psychologists formerly investigated, and psychologists took over
Speaker 1: from religious leaders who used to lead the discussion on
Speaker 1: matters of the heart and soul. And yet another way
Speaker 1: to approach the subject is to talk about alienation, as
Speaker 1: Karl Marks did. So are people really lonelier than we
Speaker 1: used to be? Or is the concern mostly in effort
Speaker 1: to get a handle on a new social structure and
Speaker 1: the impact of new technolog g Regardless, the UK has
Speaker 1: a Minister of Loneliness ready to tackle the problem. And hey,
Speaker 1: bonus back to the day, is it worse to be
Speaker 1: lonely or to smoke? Fifteen cigarettes a day. Researcher Julianne
Speaker 1: Holtland's did in her colleagues say that loneliness has a
Speaker 1: greater negative impact on health than cigarettes. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: written by Stell Simonton and produced by Tristan McNeil. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other social topics, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff works dot com.