The great Greek thinker, Aristotle, had noticed that man is by nature a social animal. He, no doubt, was right. Man lives in a society and within a society he is bound to be in chains – the invisible chains of relations and dependencies. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th century Romanticism of French expression had rightly observed, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." It is almost unavoidable to live in a society without social interactions and relations. Every necessity, from a very tiny one to the largest one, is attained through the support of the society.
However, all the human beings do not feel this dependence over the society as universal and there are few who, intentionally or unintentionally, strive to leave alone, isolated from the social life. Such human beings can said to be suffering from social isolation.
Social isolation refers to a complete or near-complete lack of contact with society for members of social species. It is usually involuntary, making it distinct from isolating tendencies or actions consciously undertaken by a person, all of which go by various other names. It is also not the same as loneliness rooted in temporary lack of contact with other humans. Social isolation can be an issue for anyone despite their age, each age group may show more symptoms than the other as children are different from adults.
Social isolation may vary in degree and form. There are cases of social isolation when individuals tend to stay home for days, weeks or even months. They tend to avoid any social contact and it is strange to observe that this trend is even maintained towards very close relatives and acquaintances. They, on most of the occasions, are caught in some sort of drug addiction or depression. There contacts with other social beings, if any, are very much different and may be very short and non-welcoming. They are easily identifiable due to their weird behavior or lack of interest and collective matters.
The most threatening fact about the social isolation is that it has the capacity to bring with itself many other issues and problems. The feelings of loneliness, fear of others, or negative self-esteem, which are mostly the outcome of social isolation, can produce potentially very severe psychological injuries. And on most of the occasions such injuries can lead to disastrous harm to others as well.
The reasons for social isolation can be many. Especially, in modern world of ours where human beings have been largely mechanized, the feelings of seclusion and loneliness are very much common. The convenient use of modern technology has made human beings distant from each other – this is what most of the sociologists and psychologists believe. However, there are some who argue otherwise.
They believe that the use of internet and mobile phones actually bring human beings close together. With the advent of online social networking communities, there are increasing options to do social activities that do not require real-world physical interaction.
They believe that the chat rooms, message boards, and other types of communities are now meeting the need for those who would rather stay home but still manage social interaction through developing communities of online friends. But modern research suggests that the use of modern technology, for whatsoever purpose it is used, may make the users even more isolated or depressed.
A study conducted by Andrea Cockett, focuses on children that are ventilator dependent and consequences that have been led by dependence upon technology. These technologies are keeping the children alive but also isolating them from what's beyond the hospital and home.
Many parents agreed that home was the most appropriate place for their child to be cared for. However, children are being isolated from the outside world. This can lead to emotional burdens that enable a child to form a relationship with another being.
Some of the other reasons of social isolation may include mental disabilities, living alone or grieving for the loss of a dear one. Some even suggest that these reasons may be the effects as well.
The effects of social isolation can be detrimental to a large extent.
Continuous and recurring social isolation that may last for a long period of time can prove to be very much serious and may result into a chronic condition. The people suffering from such a condition have no one to turn to in personal emergencies, no one to divulge in during a crisis, and no one to measure their own behavior against or learn etiquette from — referred to sometimes as social control, but possibly best described as simply being able to see how other people behave and adapt oneself to that behavior.
Lack of consistent human contact can also cause conflict with the (peripheral) friends the socially-isolated person might occasionally talk to, or might cause interaction problems with family members. It may also give rise to uncomfortable thoughts and behaviors within the person, buoyed by the fact that there are no other humans around to tell the person whether those behaviors are "right or wrong".
A notion, widely expressed by the observers, is that social relationships beneficially affect health, not only because of their supportiveness, but also because of the social control that others exercise over a person, especially by encouraging health-promoting behaviors such as adequate sleep, diet, exercise, and compliance with medical regimens or by discouraging health-damaging behaviors such as smoking, excessive eating, alcohol consumption, or drug abuse.
Another hypothesis is that social ties link people with diffuse social networks that facilitate access to a wide range of resources supportive of health, such as medical referral networks, access to others dealing with similar problems, or opportunities to acquire needed resources via jobs, shopping, or financial institutions. These effects are different from support in that they are less a function of the nature of immediate social ties but rather of the ties these immediate ties provide to other people. Also, social isolation can sometimes go hand in hand with mental illness because of behaviors mentioned beforehand.
Therefore it is necessary human beings should have strong and reliable social interactions and relations must not abandon their trust over the importance of social life. The concept of living without society is an absurd concept and human beings are no doubt a social animal tied in the chains of social responsibilities and relations.