Social Isolation Among Older Adults

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.

Social work introduced itself to me at a very young, and tender age. Growing up in foster care, not being able to see my parents, watching as family members died before I could say goodbye, and constantly being called orphan in school, taught me a great deal about the scars I would carry for the rest of my life. While I tried to play the role of a normal kid, hanging with friends, telling stories of happy childhood memories, it was simply a mask to hide that I knew my scars were burning inside me, that happiness wasn’t a luxury I could enjoy. Going from foster home to foster home was a reminder of that unaffordable luxury, and soon I grew to be so insecure that I could not function without having someone tell me what to do, or reassure me that

Wellbeing and quality of life for most people is enhanced through meaningful involvement and activity. It is crucial that individuals are involved in decisions that affect them. There are many ways in which such involvement can be facilitated and encouraged. Services should recognise the importance of social contact and

Over the last 30 years, the methods of human interactions have grown explosively, from face-to-face conversations, to video calling, instant messaging, texting, Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat, and Instagram. As the technology we surround ourselves with pervades an increasing number of aspects in our lives, it has begun to affect our mental health. A Carnegie Mellon study concluding that internet usage leads to significant increases in loneliness and depression received U.S. national media coverage (Kraut, Patterson, et al., 1998). However, others argue that the internet may just provide a place of refuge for those suffering from loneliness, anxiety, and depression. (McKenna and Bargh, 59)

A social worker in a long-term care facility helps the person who is entering a facility to make the transition from a previous living environment to life in an institutional setting while meeting the social/emotional comfort needs of that resident. Once the resident is established, the social worker assures the resident's continuing needs are met and that the person is given the opportunity to participate in planning for continued care in the facility, transfer, or discharge back into the community. Although the resident is the main focus, it should be mentioned that much of the social worker’s time may be spent working with the

A recent study published in 2016 by a team of researchers found that in a survey of 1,787 adults, ages 19-32 there was a “strong and significant association between social media use and depression in a nationally representative sample of U.S. young adults” (Lindsey et al.). This is not the first study to confirm the hypothesis that social media use causes depression, but it is the most recent and largest study to date and it confirms the findings of other smaller studies done. Perhaps social media makes lonely people less lonely by allowing them to easily meet new people or rekindle old social bonds. However, a study lead by social psychologist Robert Kraut on depression and internet use found that users who were introverted were more likely to feel depressed and lonely using the internet that extroverted internet users (49-74). Social media has even given way to a new term, FOMO…or the fear of missing out which users can experience as they peruse Facebook. Not only does the internet hardwire us for depression, but its driving content can make us feel more lonely or

Many of the elderly find themselves living in isolation. There are many reasons why the elderly will find themselves living alone and in isolation. Many times caregivers have difficulty intervening. Social isolation can have many effects on the health status of the elderly. When alone the mental, physical and even the nutritional status of the older person can be affected. Trying to get the person to accept that they are being isolated can be difficult. There are a few resources that can have a positive impact on the elderly. This paper discusses issues of isolation and the elderly.

In “social isolation and perceived barriers to establishing social networks among Latina immigrants”, Hurtado de Mendoza, Gonzales, Serrano, Kaltman (2014) argues that Latina immigrants who come to the United States suffer can suffer from social isolation that affects their overall health. The study was conducted on Latina immigrants between the ages of 18-70. It condcluded that a repeated factor resoposible for their social isolation was the comparision they made between their homelands and the new envorminet they were exposed to when arriving to the Unites States. The study wanted to acknoweldge the barrieres that are experciended with an unreperesented population, this being Latina immigrants experviening social isolation.

Life satisfaction is typically related to social relationships, which helps us to understand why relationships are essential for older adults' well-being (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). Naturally, it would seem that most adults in their later lives would have more support from friends and family to rally around them and support them through the various challenges and stressors of late adulthood. However, Broderick and Blewitt (2015) acknowledge that it is normal for their social networks of friends and family is smaller in scope than in the past. It must be

. Using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System, researchers could measure the participants' level of social isolation. The researchers found that participants who use social media for two or more hours a day were two times more likely to perceive social isolation, compared to those who only spend less than half an hour each day

When I was eighteen I worked for the Williams Lake Association for Community Living and a social worker visited my worksite. I was very curious about her profession and asked her questions about the field. At that moment I wanted to go to school to become a social worker. At twenty-one, I began my journey to get my Bachelors of Social Work; but I was diverted and started a family. As time went by and I matured, my wish to work in an area that allowed me to make an impact on people’s lives and help the vulnerable through a range of different approaches never diminished; social work was an obvious field through which I could develop these skills and passions. When my girls became teenagers, I felt it was time to finish my education and pursued

The ability to support the older people keep up social ties with the use of technical devices such as telephone is vital, and there is indication that older people may benefit from the use of internet as a befriending opportunity (Skingley, 2013). According to Age UK (2009), there is no evidence to effectiveness of services aimed at reducing loneliness and social isolation among older people, but concludes that there is a need to focus on befriending services for older people, in particular the effectiveness of such services in terms of their impact on older people’s quality of life and their overall preventive value.

This study investigated the difference between emotional and social loneliness using structural equation modeling, evaluated whether a two-dimensional or unidimensional conception of loneliness provides a better fit to the data. Second, the extent to which positive and negative social exchanges are associated with older adults’ loneliness was examined. Third, they also investigated whether the structure and social-exchange correlates of loneliness differ for currently married versus formerly married older

As we get older, our social connections often gets smaller, only having things or people that are extremely important to us. In this paper we will be examining the social-psychological problems; social isolation and loneliness that are faced by elderly by facilitating the response to five main discussion topics. The following discussion will facilitate the understanding of social isolation and loneliness, the risk factors, explore the prevalence of social isolation and loneliness in long term care facilities and the role of occupational therapist assistants and physiotherapist assistants have this emerging issue of social isolation.

Social media causes isolation because it makes people not fully engage with others. Social media has made us become more interested in our phones and computers than the real world. Many people would be more interested to interact on social media rather than interacting with others in person. As Wency Leung points out in her essay Does Social Media Bring Us Closer- or Make Us Loners, “While we are connected, we are rarely fully engaged with those immediately around us” (687). As Leung points out, we are more engage to our devices than being fully engaged with the people around us. For example, we see this all over the place like in colleges, parks, and even in your own house. Most people would prefer to engage over the phone that to be engaged in a conversation with the person in front of them.