Connected

Some experts in the field have concluded that the health effect of social relationships may be as important as established risk factors such as smoking, physical activity, obesity and high blood pressure.

In his article, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” Stephen Marche argues that Facebook is the vital cause for loneliness and is luring people away from social capital. According to Marche, social networking isolates individuals and creates distance, mostly amongst family members. For some, it is not only isolation but rather social loneliness. The author claims that health can also be effected by loneliness. Nowadays, due to very little verbal person to person communication, he writes that people have never been so separated from one another because of social media. Facebook users, Marche argues, have an addiction to profoundly visit their account constantly leading to the feeling of loneliness and in most cases depression. The author claims that social networking, instead of demolishing isolation, is unknowingly spreading it. Ultimately, However, Stephen’s argument fails to convince due to his abundant false assumptions and the articles confusing organization.

The impact of loneliness on physical health can also be better understood by the study conducted by Uchino and colleagues (1996). They found that social individuals have lower blood pressure, better immunity and lower levels of stress hormones than the socially isolated people. In contrast another study described by Arthur 2006 demonstrated that it is not yet clear that group therapy or socialization can improve the secondary prevention of Coronary heart Disease. After considering all the studies and arguments by different authors it can be conclude that it is necessary to do more research on the impact of socialization on physical health of individuals.

High-quality social relationships, wherein people experience camaraderie and happiness, yield substantial health benefits. For instance, social ties such as marriage and religious involvement have been linked to healthier choices with diet and exercise, possibly because these connections promote positive behavioral norms (Umberson and Montez, 2010). High-quality social relationships also promote mental health by offering individuals a sense of place within a meaningful environment. When people feel connected and supported, they tend to experience a greater sense of control, a psychological state shown to be both associated and causally linked to good health (Lachman and Weaver, 1998). Positive psychological effects of social relationships improve physical health by making it easier for the body to maintain chemical homeostasis over long periods of time by alleviating its “allostatic load” (Umberson and Montez, 2010). Ultimately, these components of high-quality social relationships make people less likely to get sick and die.

In our first unit of sociology, I felt I could relate with the term social network, " The term social network refers to the people who are linked to one another(Henslin,116.)"Social networks include everyone you know. I can relate to social networking because I 'm on a social salsa team. When I joined my dance team , we all had the same passion, the love of dance. After a few years of performing and hanging with the same clique all the time for they have the same interests as me. After a while we all seemed to cluster together and they are now more than just a clique to me they are my fiends.

There are both positives and negatives to social networking. After reading his article, I began to reflect on my own experiences and looked further into the information he presented. I found Thomas’s piece to be extremely accurate and I agree with the majority of his claims. Thomas goes deeply into the limited privacy these websites provide, the ambient awareness that brings a whole new meaning to knowing someone, and how your “weak ties” may be stronger, but also impacting your real life relationships. The article made me realize how much this social media craze is affecting our population and myself.

Kiderra ties this idea to being obese. She stats “if a person you consider a friend becomes obese […] your own chances of becoming obese go up 57 percent” (1). The bonds we make with others goes beyond mental, they can affect our physical appearance. Kiderra also goes on and explains that it isn’t our immediate family that has the greatest effect on us physiologically, but our friends. Also “further analysis also suggest that people’s influence on each other’s obesity status could not be put down just to similarities in lifestyle and environment” (1). We feel comfortable around people with the same trends as us not only in obesity, but any activity that makes us similar. This leads people to do what their friends or people around them

For example, inappropriate or unhelpful advice from medical providers and lack of physician referral/recommendation impact veteran’s diabetes self-management behavior, which can further influence diet choice (Nelson, Mcfarland, & Reiber, 2007). Lack of social support from friends, family, medical providers, homeless shelters, and VA facilities are also reinforcing factors that influence veterans diet choice (LePage & Garcia-Rea, 2008). Studies have shown that having social support can be helpful for encouraging and facilitating healthy eating behaviors (Martin et al., 1994). Another study cited by Holtz et al. (2014) provides evidence to show that social support over the Internet improves weight loss among veterans. Likewise, users who participated in a weight loss intervention via online forum reported receiving encouragement and motivation posts from other users, and as a result, this increased physical activity and diet choice (Holtz et al., 2014). With this in mind, it is important to note that while social support have been proven to improve diet choice, negative aspects of support such as nagging, unhelpful advice or a tendency to treat individual as ill or invalid can have a negative impact on F&Vs consumption among veterans (Ko et al., 2011). Moreover, a study conducted by Nelson, Mcfarland, and Reiber (2007) reveals that low perceived

The central question that researchers have been investigating are “the ways that networks affect health through their influence on social support, sex, and food consumption- topics both relevant to health and inherently social” (Bird 75). Social networks in this article relates to any relationship that has consequences to ones’ health whether that be via smoking, drinking, exercising or another form of interactions that has a direct effect on health. While individuals have some control over their diet, sexual activity, and support of friends however societal norms and behaviors of friends overall constrain these notions.

The government is watching your every move, listening to every word, keeping you in line. One wrong move and you’re done for. 1984 is a novel that focuses on four main people and is set in the future from when it was written. The government has total control over everything you do and if you slip up it could mean vaporization. Four people that don’t really know each other enter into each other’s lives and things get interesting.

Additional research exploring the impact of social relationships on health outcomes have shown that having strong social networks and relationships can improve an individual’s overall health and well-being (Tamers, Okechukwu, Allen, Yang, Stoddard, Tuker-Seeley & Sorensen, 2012). The forms of social ties and supports an individual has in place can influence their health behaviours in terms of dietary patterns and physical activity habits (Tamers et al., 2012). Having to deal with the presumptive and discriminatory attitudes of formal and informal caregivers, family members or friends, leads individuals who are overweight or obese to seek out solace and companionship in others who share similar physical characteristics as themselves (Carr & Friedman,

Obesity-related intervention strategies have displayed significantly better results when individuals are placed in a group compared to targeting one individual by a medical professional (Paul-Ebhohimhen & Avenell, 2009). Additionally, weight-loss group interventions can be successful online through social media platforms and have shown to increase physical activity levels at a significantly faster and higher rate than individuals alone (Zhang, Brackbill, Yang, & Centola, 2015). Individuals who are overweight or obese display an increase in weight loss indent when the surrounding social ties take part in weight loss behavior as well. (Leahey, LaRose, Fava, & Wing, 2010). Group obesity intervention may be a productive and efficient tool in the facilitation of positive health communication and a strategy for increasing the amount of pro-health behavior communicators in an individual’s network.

At first, I agreed with Stephen Marche, author of “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?”, but after doing some of my own research I would like to retract my original position. We cannot blame technology for our own human condition. However Stephen Marche begs to differ. “At the forefront of all this unexpectedly lonely interactivity is Facebook, with 845 million users and $3.7 billion in revenue last year” (Marche). Stephen Marche believes Facebook is making us lonely because it is changing the dynamics of traditional friendships (Marche). He also blames Facebook for the rise in human isolation. From 1950 to 2010 a 17 percent increase in households of one were reported (Marche). Does Marche not realize that many happy Americans

Studies of mortality, which included social relationships as a metric, determined social relationships have a significant causal relationship to mortality. (Holt-Lunstad, Smith & Layton, 2010) More studies have been done on social relationships however; the mechanisms of how social relationships affect our health are still unclear. (2010) Relationships and their effect on health status continue to be an important area of research and analysis. Social relationships are a determinant which can be addressed at a community level. One key principle outlined by the Commission of European Communities report was not just looking at mortality rates, but also focusing on the quality of life during the

In the example of Obesity, an individual’s obesity can be wrongly viewed as their own personal trouble but when viewed at a broader spectrum, it is noted that there is a variety of social issues involved which transforms it from a personal trouble to a social phenomenon. In addition to Mills’ ideas, there has been a significant amount of research which suggests obesity is a social phenomenon.