User:Stsi77/sandbox/Social Isolation and The Internet

Social Isolation and The Internet refers to an individual separated and disconnected from the society due to a technological connection forces. It’s the state in which a person lacks the feeling of social belonging in real life. The Social Network on the other hand has a beneficial side; it creates an open discussion networks that contains people from different backgrounds. However, the excess use of technology limits face to face social engagement and community participation, which creates perceived isolation . Furthermore,Social Isolation and the disconnecting from the world have a lot of drawbacks on one’s mental and physical health. Sociologists have indicated that the social disconnectedness which is the lack of social contact can lead to a severe health risks like cardiovascular disease, inflammation and depression. Many young and old adults suffer from the feeling of loneliness and social awkwardness because they isolate themselves and deal with the world through the internet, which makes the situation of physically dealing with people harder. Moreover, each person, uses the internet differently to function different types of loneliness, either family or romantic or social loneliness.

Effects

Although Social Isolation can exist in one’s life for different reasons, those reasons all lead to some mental and psychological problems as well as negative physical consequences. Social Isolation in all cases leads to morbidity and mortality.. People escape from the real life to the virtual to create a shell of comfort zone; however, there’s a huge probability for the opposite to happen. This Social Separation from the real world leads to tremendous risky effects like increase in cortisol patterns, disorder sleeping patterns and immune function. Indeed,The existence of mobile phones, email and Social media made it harder for people who are depressed and suffer from loneliness.But even if sometimes Social Networking is not useful in terms of practical psychology, it's still a better way to get less mentally affected from loneliness. . “Interventions relying on technology maybe better than not interventions at all”. Recently, the evolution of the internet created a major problem called “Isolating technology” which reduces the participation of the individual in the community as well as losing contact with their social environment. Moreover, some people are socially isolated more than others due to the intrusion of the internet. Heavy internet users experience different levels of isolation as they relate everything they do to the internet which creates a feeling of satisfaction. People start to telecommute and make online purchases so they can save the trip to the stores which increases the correlation between the internet addiction and social Isolation. . One the other hand, Information and communication technology has a short term positive dimension on the elderly people; it gives them a sense of social support, connection with the world, engagement with the community as well as reduces the feeling of social isolation.