Hermits, trappers in the wilderness, and widows or widowers who keep on farming after they bury their spouse are first in mind when we speak of rural loneliness and isolation.
However, a joint study by Cardus, a faith-based think tank, and the Angus Reid Institute, a non-profit polling company, says in an urban, secular society, the lonely and isolated are next door or are us.
In the study released on June 17, only one in five of us describes ourselves as “cherished” who are neither isolated nor lonely.
An equal number of us say we are “desolate” -- fully in need of the emotional, social and material benefits of being connected.
Thirty per cent of us are moderately connected to an emotional and social network, 15 per cent say they are isolated but not lonely, and 10 per cent of us describe ourselves as lonely but not isolated.
The full study can be read at the angusreid.org or cardus.ca websites.
“Social isolation and loneliness are one of the biggest challenges of our time,” said Ray Pennings, executive vice-president of Cardus.
“They’re a symptom of our culture’s obsession with personal autonomy, leaving us living life as ‘I’ instead of ‘we.’ In doing so, we reap the poorer financial, mental, and physical health associated with isolation and loneliness, possibly making us more vulnerable to things like drug abuse, suicide, and a debt spiral."
Family and faith seem to provide a buffer against isolation and loneliness Pennings said.
Three-quarters of those who are neither isolated or lonely are married or living common law and a third attended church, and 51 per cent of those who were not isolated prayed regularly
Pennings said, “governments, media, the academy, social agencies, and all Canadians need to recognize the value of these institutions (marriage and faith) in order to find the solutions so many of us need.”
There are caveats. Seventeen per cent of the very isolated do regularly attend church and 40 per cent of those who pray consider themselves as very isolated.
While there is no easy solution to loneliness and isolation, the study found that “a strong majority of Canadians who use technology such as social media, texting, or video calling to remain connected with friends and family say that they appreciate the impact it has had on their ability to stay in touch."
Isolation and loneliness are not new problems to affluent, secular society.
In 1950, American sociologist David Riesman wrote a landmark book called The Lonely Crowd, that studied the nature of post-war American society and the type of personal character it was producing.
Riesman wrote about the disappearance of confident but rigid “tradition-directed” people who live by rules they had been taught as children and wanted to be esteemed.
Their children, the new generation, were “other-directed” who wanted to be loved. They were flexible and didn’t want to control others, but to be assured that they were emotionally connected.
The desire to be emotionally connected helped shape the next generation -- the boomers.
It is us, the boomers and our millennial children who are vulnerable to the isolation and loneliness that the Angus Reid and Cardus study describes.
For family and faith to overcome isolation and loneliness requires a third institution.
The Academy of Hard Work.
– Frank Dabbs is a veteran journalist and author
