PHILADELPHIA: Lack of social connections can be as harmful to people’s well-being as suffering from diseases, stress, or poverty, and can even reduce life expectancy.
Loneliness and isolation are not only on the rise among the elderly but growing parts of the general population as well. Paradoxically, neither the Internet nor social media – designed to promote communication and connectedness – seem to be able to mitigate these trends, according to several recent studies on the importance of social interactions for good health…