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Is Loneliness a Health Epidemic (流行病)？

Over the last twenty years, more and more studies reveal increasing numbers of people experience loneliness regularly. In the face of such a situation, earlier this year, Britain appointed its first “minister for loneliness”, who is charged with dealing with what the Prime Minister called the “sad reality of modern life”.

Public-health leaders immediately praised the idea-and for good reason. In recent decades, researchers have discovered that loneliness left untreated is not just psychically painful; it also can have serious medical consequences. And numerous studies have linked loneliness to heart disease, cancer, depression, diabetes and suicide. Vivek Murthy, the former United States surgeon general, has written that loneliness is associated with a reduction in life span similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.

Anxiety about loneliness is a common feature of modern societies. Today, two major causes of loneliness seem possible. One is that societies throughout the world have embraced a culture of individualism. More people are living alone, and aging alone, than ever. Liberal social policies have turned workers into unstable free agents, and when jobs disappear, things fall apart fast. Labor unions, civic associations, neighborhood organizations, religious groups and other traditional sources of social unity are in steady decline. Increasingly, we all feel that we’re on our own.

The other possible cause is the rise of communication technology, including smartphones, social media and the Internet. A decade ago, companies like Facebook, Apple and Google promised that their products would help create meaningful relationships and communities. On the contrary, we’ve used the media system to deepen existing divisions, at both the individual and group levels. We may have thousands of “friends” and “followers” on Facebook and Instagram,  but when it comes to human relationships, it turns out there’s no choice but to build them the old-fashioned way, in person.

But is loneliness, as many political officials and experts are warning, a growing “health epidemic”? I don’t believe so, nor do I believe it helps anyone to describe it that way. Social disconnection is a serious matter, yet — if we arouse a panic over its popularity and impact, we’re less likely to treat it properly.

In places like the United States and Britain, it’s the poor, unemployed, displaced and migrant populations that suffer most from loneliness. Their lives are unstable, and so are their relationships. When they get lonely, they are the least able to get adequate social or medical support.

I don’t believe we have a loneliness epidemic. But millions of people are suffering from social disconnection. Whether or not they have a minister for loneliness, they deserve more attention and help than we’re offering today.

Is Loneliness a Health Epidemic?
Introduction	•The severity of loneliness resulted in the 1. of “minister for loneliness” in Britain.
Consequences of loneliness	•If left untreated, people 2. from loneliness may well develop physical and mental illnesses.
•Similar to negative effects caused by smoking and obesity, loneliness is to blame for 3. deaths.
Possible 4.of loneliness	•In a culture laying emphasis on individualism, it has become too easy to be alone. Meanwhile, with sources of social unity declining 5.people lack opportunities to be connected.
• 6. to what technological companies promised, the growth of using modem technology actually leads people to split up, as there is no 7. for face-to-face communication.
Writer’s attitudes towards loneliness	•Overstatement about loneliness may panic people, which is likely to lead to 8. treatment of the problem.
•There is no epidemic, but people at a(n)) 9. are in need of adequate social or medical support, and those disconnected from society are 10. of more concern.