Loneliness a Contagious state?
Studies have showed that loneliness is like a common cold or other infection, which can be contagious. This means that people who suffer from it tends to spread it to others who, in turn, are pushed to the periphery of the social network where they too start infecting other people.
Although loneliness is a very complex state that is as difficult to define as it is to “treat,” people who tend to be lonely only become more so with the passing of the years. They start losing friends and move to the margins of their social network, but in doing so, they also spread their loneliness to other people who have the same tendency. The data showed that lonely people ‘infected’ the people around them with loneliness, and those people moved to the edges of social circles. People’s chances of becoming lonely were more likely to be caused by changes in friendship networks than changes in family networks. Not surprisingly, women are easier influenced this way than men, the study has also learned.
Still, solutions for this are to be found in campaigns that target these people with the aim of drawing them out. Otherwise, they will be left on their own; add to that the societies develop a “natural tendency” to rid themselves of such people, and one can easily understand why researchers see reason to worry in this tendency.
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