The Rock & Roll Health Chick ALL THE LONLEY PEOPLE


by Electra Posada The Beatles sang, “ All the lonley people,


where do they all come from? All the lonely peo- ple. Where do they all belong?” Well, let me tell you…


Ever been in a crowded room and realized


you felt lonely? Maybe you were playing in a bar room and didn’t feel like you were connecting to anyone. Some people don’t have a social network and might not leave their houses for anything other than trips to the doctor or grocery store. They may have developed a rapport with the staff at their favorite restaurant, but when it comes to doing something more meaningful, no one is there. When something great happens, there’s no one to call up and celebrate with. When some- thing sad happens or they get sick, there’s no sup- port network. The holidays are especially difficult for lonely people. Others are getting together with loved ones and celebrating, which magnifies the feeling of being alone. Suicides increase greatly at this time of year. There are 7.53 billion humans in the world, and people are lonely! It’s tragic! Humans are social creatures. Not many


people can survive on their own for very long without others. Those who choose to be alone risk mental and physical health issues just from the isolation. That is why solitary confinement is the ultimate punishment in our failing and barbaric “justice” system. But that’s a whole other topic… We have a primal drive to find a partner and con- tinue our species. We also have a mechanism that tells us there is safety in numbers. Before we lived in developed areas, we formed tribes and had large, extended families. We protected the group, and many hands made light work. There are a lot of people who choose not to


have connections for various reasons. Maybe they were abused and/or got hurt so much in the past


that they won’t expose themselves to the risk of pain. Maybe they were bullied in school or on so- cial media and are afraid of being attacked again. Maybe they don’t have good social skills or are in- secure. Maybe they got tired of trying and being rejected. Maybe they’ve lost someone so special to them that they don’t feel they can risk getting close and losing another. Young people today have never known a


time when you had to call someone up on the home phone or ride your bike to their house in order to hang out. If they weren’t home, you had to learn patience, perseverance, make alternate plans and wait to connect. Riding bikes with my neighborhood gang, skateboarding, singing along to records in my friend’s bedroom, sledding down the huge East Tennessee hills, trick-or-treating as a group, scraping up any change we could find and going down to Kay’s Ice Cream, where we crammed into a booth and loosened the tops to the salt and pepper shakers, were some of the best memories I still have after four decades. We had the time of our lives doing things that now would get our parents in trouble for neglect or abuse. Kids today don’t have that freedom. Be- cause of the creeps out there, they aren’t allowed to go exploring without adult supervision. That robs them of a whole lot of fun and a host of skills they need later in life. Some people never learned how to social-


ize in person. Social media and texting have taken over actual in-person interactions. It kills me to see a group of friends or a family at a table, and they’re all on their phones! Or the parents are on their phones and the kids are craving their atten- tion. Don’t do that! Kids grow up fast and your phone won’t replace their company or love in the future. If you don’t make the connection now, you probably won’t have it later. And what would we do if we lost internet?


Would we still have friends? Your Facebook 24


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