Loneliness Can Wreak Havoc with Your Health, but More Than 372 Friends on Facebook Doesn’t Mean a Longer, Better Life

Image of a crowd.
A large group but some still lonely.

Research over the past several years has shown that loneliness can be hazardous to your health.

As an introvert, I’ve struggled to square this news with my occasional preference for time alone over, say a party with 250 of my closest friends.

We introverts may spend more time alone than would an extrovert, but that does not make introverts lonely. Now John Cacioppo, a social psychologist at the University of Chicago has described more precisely the aspects of isolation that may cause health concerns, as well as the biological mechanisms responsible for negative health effects due to loneliness. In an article in Science, recently, Greg Miller reviewed Cacioppo’s work. We learn here that it’s the experience of loneliness that can be negative, as opposed to the number of social contacts a person has. Continue reading “Loneliness Can Wreak Havoc with Your Health, but More Than 372 Friends on Facebook Doesn’t Mean a Longer, Better Life”