isolated, disconnected, and like one

isolated, disconnected, and like one doesn’t belong. In terms of emotional health, the prospect for lonely people is increasing misery, at least over the short term. Loneliness and depressed affect tend to be thought of as synonymous, but the two are conceptually and empirically distinct. If loneliness and depression were synonymous, increases in loneliness would have no capacity to predict increases in depressive symptoms because increases in one would be exactly paralleled by increases in the other. Instead, longitudinal data have shown that loneliness predicts an increase in depressive symptoms but depressive symptoms do not predict an increase in loneliness over a one-year interval.’ Importantly, the influence of loneliness on depressive symptoms was not attributable to fewer social connections, general negativity, stress, or poor social support. These data suggest that the relevant intervention target is loneliness, and that modifying the cognitions, perceptions, and expectations of the lonely individual could help improve quality of life and overall well-being. Social Connectedness: Invisible Forces Made Visible At this juncture, having become acquainted with the burden of loneliness, it is helpful to remember that most people, most of the time, feel socially connected. They derive satisfaction and meaning from their social relationships and this makes them happier and more satisfied with life. Interestingly, happiness leads to higher levels of relationship satisfaction, indicating that happiness and relationship satisfaction feed forward to foster spirals of increasing happiness and relationship satisfaction. The general positivity that ? Page |46 ensues from happiness is also apparent in the effects of happiness on income. Happiness predicted increases in household income over a 2-year period in middle-aged adults. However, relationship satisfaction also predicted increases in household income over this time period and, remarkably, relationship satisfaction helped to explain the effect of happiness on income. It seems that happy people experience increases in income in part because of the general good will that surrounds the socially contented individual and that elicits tangible and intangible positivity from others. It is perhaps precisely because most people feel socially connected and happy that we take for granted the invisible force of social connectedness and its stabilizing and nurturing influence in all aspects of life. Only in its absence do we begin to comprehend its power. Western notions of the autonomous individual notwithstanding, human beings are “wired” for social connections and need social bonds to feel safe, valued, motivated, and competent.'* Among the lamentations expressed by some in Western societies is a concern that our autonomy and independence come at the expense of meaningful social relationships and a sense of belonging to a larger social unit. Family members are no longer obligatorily part of our social community, while Facebook friends, some of whom we know only through electronic media, are deemed essential to fulfilling our need for a sense of connectedness and belonging.’* The broadening of our social worlds has not been accompanied by maintenance, much less improvement, of the quality of our social relationships. One national study showed a threefold increase HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021292