Disalvo: Article Summary

In “Study: Loneliness Isn’t A Symptom, It’s A Disease”, DiSalvo (2014) informs that a study distinguished a new idea of loneliness that it is a kind of illness rather than a symptom. Several studies were conducted by loneliness expert John Cacioppo which identify loneliness as an acute sensation when people face the social withdrawal. Furthermore, his team discovered the feelings of being alone are able to inherit, obvious in the level of distress feelings, to the next generation. The recent study, Cacioppo’s team had found that the brain of lonely people would inhibit the provocation of positive things, and it is a kind of self-protection that prevent the negative impact. The findings are loneliness can precipitate a number of extra problems through the degenerated brain. …show more content…
Under the advanced technology, the function of verbal communication has been replaced by the invention of immediate messaging apps, such as Whatsapp, for smartphone. Communication gradually becomes a one way channel, through message or emoticon, instead of two way communication with instant feedback. Therefore, people may feel alone easily because they always stay alone with their own smartphone. According to Coughlan (2011), the majority of the population who suffer from loneliness is the elderly. Most of them are retired and have a plenty of leisure time, especially stay alone at home without any conversation, every day. However, they have lack of emotional support due to insufficient communication. For instance, people have long working hour that family interaction seems to be an impossible mission, and eventually neglect the importance of family