【明報專訊】Social life, which refers to interactions between people in society, is part of the social fabric. Though it is a matter of personal choice with whom we interact, there are crucial factors as well, and these factors are often shaped by society. According to Karl Marx, the basic structure of society is made up of economic and material aspects, and they affect social life that is non-material, spiritual and ideological.

Loneliness is a health hazard

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychologist at Brigham Young University, conducted studies with her team on the relationship between loneliness and health. These studies involved nearly four million people. One of her studies showed that a lonely person's risk of premature death was 50 percent higher than a person with good social connections.

Holt-Lunstad referred to the phenomenon as a ''loneliness epidemic''. To sort out this problem, she said that society should focus its effort on training children's social skills, while doctors should treat a patient's social connections as one of the items in a medical check-up. She argued that connections with other people are a widely recognized basic human need that is crucial to a sense of well-being and survival. Her recommendation was that people should make arrangements for future social lives when planning for retirement to avoid becoming lonely when they do not have to work anymore.

Sharing of family photographs

The sophistication of the internet has led parents to share photographs of their children or parenting tips on social media platforms. The Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong says that parents share the photographs of their children on the internet mostly to ''preserve their fond memories''. But the association has found that some parents had seen their ''facebook friends'' mocking the appearances of their children. The association said that as family photographs have to do with the issue of privacy, they should only be shared among close friends. Furthermore, the group reminds parents to consider their children's feelings and think about whether their children will be embarrassed if their photos are circulated on the internet.

Video game addiction

According to the Hong Kong Christian Service Online Addiction Counselling Centre, there is a rising trend towards younger people's video game and internet addictions. The centre handles 120 to 140 new cases every year. Before 2016, cases involving primary students numbered one or two. But in 2018, primary students accounted for 15 percent of the cases, and the youngest of them was a seven-year-old boy who was about to begin primary school.

The centre said that the factors that contribute to video game addictions include one's personal image, social life, interests and relationships with families. To solve the problem of addiction, simply limiting young people's mobile phone usage is not enough. It is necessary to help them find other ways to de-stress.

Translated by Terence Yip

[通通識 第633期]