Loneliness induced in social networks — is this bad news for the lonely?
A major concern I have with this study is that it’s going to reinforce the stigma against the lonely by casting them as “carriers” of some sort of “contagious” disease. If we’re averse to loneliness (and of course, we are), then there is bound to be some backlash against people “carrying” the state. Oh, my goodness. I can’t even believe I’m using these terms.
Lonely people aren’t “carrying” anything, and I wish the media would stop being so predictably melodramatic and stereotype-inducing in reporting the (very preliminary) results.
I can just see the coverage of this paper leading lonely people to try to hide their state, for fear of being seen as “carriers.”
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 10:48 am and is filed under the category Effects of Loneliness.
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When people don’t know enough info or have enough studies, they tend to freak out and accept the wrong explanations. Such as, the reason the pyramids in Egypt got built was because aliens came down and gave the ancients information on how to build them. (That is a true stipulation that many alien-fans actually believe is very real.) What I am saying is that this is a natural happening because of the fact that the general public has absolutley no knowledge or facts. Therefore, stupid stories can go around. Sort of like the Salem witch trials…