¿Estamos ante una pandemia de soledad?

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I' m Roberto Pombo. Welcome
to my questions. An average rush program

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sponsored by KFAM family compensation box.
Last year, the World Health Organization declared

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loneliness a public health problem. Social
isolation and the decline of the population are

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just some of the reasons that have
led us to this point. What are

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the effects of loneliness, how much
do the Internet and social networks have to

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do with it? For this chapter
we spoke with the writer Adolfo Sablé,

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Oscar Robayu, professor at the Universidad
del Rosario, Carolina Piñeros, executive director

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of Red Papaz, with Santiago Amador, director of ib O Laboratorio de Innovación

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Pública in Bogotá and with psychologist Marcela
Betancourt. I am Roberto Pombo and it

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is chapter eighty- nine of my
questions welcome for some reason I still do

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not understand. My tiktok algorithm led
me to a series of videos about the

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possibility of a dog or a cat
eating the owner' s corpse. If

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I could find out. I had
to investigate the veracity of the so terrifying

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claim. Turns out there' s
not enough evidence that that happens or has

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happened systematically. No one has kept
track of their follow- up of the

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frequency or probability that pets would feed
on their deceased owners. I only found

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a study by a French team of
researchers led by Tomás Colar at the University

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of Lin that examined a sample large
enough sixty- three cases to arrive at

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some conclusions about the general pattern of
how a pet could consume its deceased owner

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to be quieter. However, there
was one detail that remained spinning in my

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mind to die alone with no more
companionship than that of a pet. I

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recalled a report of the year two
thousand and fifteen that was published in the

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New York Times. George Beld'
s Lonely Death Begins by counting the day

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the police found George Bell' s
body after a week of death. His

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neighbors called the police because of the
smell of his apartment. However, there

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was no one to call to tell
him the news of his death or to

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whom to leave his inheritance, which
was not much. I thought George Bell

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' s story was terrible until I
found a more recent one, The neighbors

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of a building in southern London reported
a bad smell and worm infection from the

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apartment of Sheila Silon, a fifty- eight year old secretary. In October

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of two thousand and twenty, 14
months later, the police were finally asked

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to conduct a welfare check, but
a police mistake led to her being informed

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that Sheila had been seen alive and
in good condition. That was not true,

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but it meant closing the case about
complaints of bad smell was nothing but

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others. Sixteen months later, in
February of two thousand twenty- two,

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Shilla' s lifeless body was found
in her apartment. I mean, it

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' s been two and a half
years without anyone showing up looking for the

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secretary. The only close relative I
had was a half brother with whom I

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had no relationship. These two terrifying
and sad news seem exceptional, but the

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data point to the increasing number of
deaths in solitude. In a study published

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in the Journal of the Royal Society
of Medicine, Theodor Stream ser Loui,

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pathologist and one of the authors of
the article, estimates that between 8,

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000 and 9, 000 people were
found in an advanced state of decomposition.

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In two thousand twenty- two,
the theory seems plausible. In two thousand

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twenty- one, thirty percent of
all households in Britain were made up of

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one person, compared with seventeen percent
in one thousand nine hundred and seventy-

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one. According to the authors of
the study, the increase in people found

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dead from unknown causes suggests a wider
erosion of social support networks, both formal

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and informal. In Japan, for
example, it is estimated that about sixty

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- eight thousand people aged sixty-
five or older die a year alone without

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a home, without anyone noticing it. According to data collected by the National

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Police Agency, between January and March
of this year alone, twenty- one

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thousand seven hundred and sixteen people suffered
solitary deaths In the United States, it

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has also begun to become a trend. Although no federal agency keeps a record

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of the number of unclaimed bodies,
data suggest that between two and four percent

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of the people who die each year
in the country are not withdrawn, representing

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up to one hundred and forty-
eight thousand people annually in South Korea.

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The figures are similar. Over the
past five years, this country has seen

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a marked increase in the number of
people dying alone, from 2, 400

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twelve in 2, 117 to 3, 300 seventy- eight in 2,

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222. It is well known that
the human being is a social being.

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That' s what we realized in
isolation from the 19- year- old

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pandemic, but the data show how
this trend is reversed. We' re

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meant to be lonely. After giving
the question to the writer Adolfo Sableme perhaps

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the question, not to say the
human being is no longer sociable, but

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lonely, but the human being is
a being of needs. In ancient times

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there was no Internet or the facilities
that exist now, because obviously it was

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necessary to snooze to feed, to
defend oneself from the invaders, to build

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a bridge, etcetera, etcetera,
etcetera. But now, since all these

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issues are solved and technology doesn'
t allow us to almost stand up for

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ourselves and need to be in physical
contact with other people, because that'

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s what you' re going through
that' s no longer necessary, because

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our needs, at least the vital
ones, don' t need someone more

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physical to satisfy them. Current global
estimates from the World Health Organization suggest that

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one in four older adults experiences social
isolation and between five and fifteen percent of

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adolescents experience loneliness. According to WHO, social isolation and loneliness not only harm

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individuals, but also have a negative
impact on entire communities and societies. Research

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shows that a country' s security, prosperity, and effective governance depend to

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a large extent on the quality of
social connections within its neighborhoods, workplaces,

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and schools. For all this only
a few months ago. In November of

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two thousand twenty- three, that
organization declared loneliness a global health priority and

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created a new commission on social connection
for him. Dr. Bibeck Murthey Co,

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chairman of that committee and Director General
of Health of the United States.

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Abrocomillas. For too long, loneliness
has existed behind the invisible and undervalued shadows,

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driving mental and physical illnesses mount quotation
marks. There is ample evidence that

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persistent loneliness is associated with higher rates
of heart disease, pressure obesity, anxiety,

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and dementia. Loneliness, though invisible
and silent, is as harmful to

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our health as smoking obesity or exposure
to contaminated air, factors known to reduce

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the hope of s video. The
Argentine neuroscientist facundo manes compares loneliness with a

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warning signal that reminds us of the
importance of human connections. The constant sense

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of loneliness increases the likelihood of illness
and it has been discovered that it can

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raise the risk of premature death by
up to thirty percent. This risk includes

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heart problems, strokes, and dementia, and although it is thought to be

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an exclusive issue for seniors, loneliness
and social disconnection affect people of all ages.

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The article The pain of loneliness and
social isolation of Nature magazine addresses the

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profound physical and psychological repercussions that loneliness
and social isolation can have on individuals of

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any age. In Spain, for
example, a study of forty db done

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by the newspaper El País concluded that
children under the age of twenty- five

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feel more alone than those over the
age of sixty- five. Looking at

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how many people have felt very alone
or quite alone in the last year,

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they found that almost thirty- seven
percent are young people between the ages of

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eighteen and twenty- four, followed
by those between the ages of twenty-

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five and thirty- four years with
thirty- two comma nine percent and those

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between the ages of thirty- five
and forty- four with twenty- eight

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comma eight percent. And, according
to the study, the overall state of

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social connections made by GALUP and Meta, twenty- five percent of young people

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aged fifteen to eighteen interviewed in one
hundred forty- two countries reported feeling very

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alone or quite alone. The figure
increases in the 19- to 29-

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year- old group, where 27
per cent of respondents show considerable loneliness.

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And to end this perorata a final
figure. One in three adults is afraid

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to be alone. We are facing
a pandemic of loneliness. He' s

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looking for psychologist Marcela Betancourt to help
me answer, and this she said yes,

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if we' re facing a pandemic
of loneliness, what happens is that

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loneliness encompasses different levels, because it' s one thing to be alone and

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another to be lonely. Notice that
many times we are surrounded by many people

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and feel lonely and sometimes alone and
do not feel alone. There are several

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variables that have led people to be
more alone as the m is recognized the

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boom of the digital age, it
was care in which we live for work

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and responsibilities, even working at home, has separated us from others and this

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generates consequences on our mental health,
especially on the levels of anxiety of people

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and everything that comes from there.
But at the other level it is to

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feel alone, there are also variables. The ideal of success, the excess

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of expectations and the pressures we perceive
also increases our feeling alone. And in

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that respect, the truth is that
the first person to leave is me,

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when I don' t know how
to listen to myself, when I don

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' t know how to like myself, when I regulate what they will say

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and not for what I would like. All this has influenced us not to

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know how to be our own companion. We don' t know how to

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go with each other. What we
do is we compare and demand, and

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that' s a much more overwhelming
level of loneliness, but that we can

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take care of when we just stop
and listen to what I want what I

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need from me, why we go
from being a social species to feeling or

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being alone in the middle of the
crowd. As most problems are complex and

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have several edges. He recalls the
recent controversy and 27 schools in Bogotá that

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banned the use of cell phones.
If you do not know the news,

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the Union of International Colleges of Bogotá
or a coli that brings together 27 private

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schools in the city, restricted the
use of devices such as phones and smart

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watches and tablets in their auras.
The reason they expressed is that they are

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concerned about auro quotes the significant impact
that mobile devices, including mobile phones,

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smart watches and other personal use devices, are having on our students closing quotes.

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According to this group of schools,
these devices have serious effects on the

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mental health of minors. So,
everything points out that yes, but under

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certain circumstances, social media may not
be the most effective way to reduce feelings

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and social isolation. Better. Quite
the contrary, although its name seems to

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indicate that we establish social relationships,
there is multiple evidence that they generate isolation,

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anxiety and depression. Think for a
moment. In the following, social

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networks are made for us to use
frequently, as well as cigarettes are made

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to be consumed, even if there
is a cancer risk warning in their packages.

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That is why they are designed to
create addiction and we are facing new

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generations for which the use of social
networks is part of their day- to

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- day in which, in the
face of any moment of loneliness, either

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in the bathroom waiting for the mus
or while eating a sandwich. The first

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reaction is to pull out your cell
phone, to open Instagram, tiktok or

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x. According to statist data,
the use of social media or social media

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activity has risen markedly. In two
thousand twenty- one more than four zero

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million people used social networks worldwide and
it is projected that this figure will grow

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to almost six zero million. By
the year two thousand and twenty- seven,

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a group of researchers from South Korea
surveyed three hundred people between nineteen and

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thirty- nine years of age to
better understand the relationship between the use of

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social networks to seek connection in order
to avoid social isolation. Researchers found that

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the use of social networks only increased
subjective well- being through increased connectivity,

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but not through reduced social isolation.
This is because social media doesn' t

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solve our feelings of loneliness. The
scientific evidence of the effect of the use

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of s r srdes sociales in isolation
is extensive. There are many studies on

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this and I will not fill them
in with data, but I do want

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to quote one of the findings of
a group of Chinese psychologists. When people

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participate in extensive and long- term
use of social media, they can involuntarily

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replace real- world interactions with virtual
relationships, increasing their perception of social isolation.

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As a result this aggravates their feelings
of loneliness. The company and permanent

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connection feeling that smartphones and social networks
give us are nothing more than an illusion.

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Social researchers and psychologists Jonathan Hate and
Jim Twinch call this phenomenon the smartphone

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trap, because it is precisely the
social consequences of using smartphones and social networks

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that have caused a remarkable and documented
increase in the sense of loneliness among American

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teenagers. From two thousand twelve years
in which most Americans began to have a

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smar to verify the hypothesis. Heite
Panch and her colleagues discussed the answers to

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questions about the school loneliness of more
than one million 15- and 16-

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year- olds from 37 countries in
the program for international student assessment, that

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is, the famous PISA tests.
But it' s not as simple as

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banning cell phones in classrooms that we' re going to avoid loneliness and isolation.

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Social networks are not going to disappear, let alone the Internet. Oscar

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Robayo is a professor at the Universidad
del Rosario and author of a study on

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the excessive use of smartphones and applications
and impulsive behaviors. I looked for him

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to ask him it is possible to
continue using social networks without that means isolating

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them or feeling alone. This answered
me. Recent studies indicate that the use

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of social networks does not have the
same effect on all people. Specifically,

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it has been found that those users
who consider social media as a productivity tool

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and therefore lead them to have a
plan and a content creation strategy perceive these

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digital platforms as an ally to become
known and grow in followers, views and

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other metrics of these networks. However, these types of users who create content

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and have a clear objective correspond to
a very small percentage of the total number

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of users of social networks. What
happens to the remaining majority of users is

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something different. These are the millions
of users who have a much more passive

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role in consuming the content created by
the first group of users mentioned earlier and

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which is associated with significant harmful effects, especially on women, both adolescents and

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young adults. Social comparison leads these
young users to have an impact on their

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self- esteem, self- image
or body image, sleep problems or decreased

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academic and work performance, social isolation
and feelings of loneliness and even depression.

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What we are seeing then is that
we can use them without becoming isolated,

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as social media is a tool and
depends on how you define your own relationship

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with them. If you see them
as a space where you can achieve clear

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goals, where you have control over
them, it seems that their effect can

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be even positive. If you feel
that you don' t have control over

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the time you spend on them and
feel lonely and frustrated. I present to

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you that there are ways to redefine
your relationship with social networks. Social networks

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and the Internet are not the only
ones to blame for the problem of loneliness

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facing humanity. Nor is it something
that has begun in the twenty- first

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century. It has been a long
process that has led us to where we

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are, and part of that process
and isolation has been the result of the

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way in which humanity has built the
cities in which we live. Let'

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s start with basic housing size.
Already in one chapter we talked about the

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tendency for apartment houses in more than
one room to disappear. It seems that

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the builders opted for either alone or
build separate buildings, studios and 30-

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square- meter monoenvironments that they now
call Coliving. As Jennifer Kent, a

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doctor at the University of Sydney,
explains, living in small apartments can increase

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loneliness for some people. This is
because the reduced space limits their ability to

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invite people to dinner. Others living
in poorly maintained housing report similar experiences.

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In Colombia alone, the number of
people living alone has increased markedly. While

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in two thousand five the percentage of
single- person families was only eleven percent,

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in two thousand eighteen, the year
of the last census, it rose

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to eighteen commas six percent. That
is, that two comma sixty- four

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million people live alone the cities built
around private transport, instead of public transport,

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bicycles or pedestrians have also done their
part. According to Dr Kent,

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we are more likely to interact in
some way with those around us on the

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street or on public transport than when
we are locked in the privacy of a

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car, something similar happens to environments
that should be designed to be protected from

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crime, traffic and pollution, allowing
us to explore our neighborhoods easily on foot.

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But those same problems. The insecurity
of pollution trafficking, especially in Latin

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American cities, has made it very
difficult to get out on the street and

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trust each other. The disappearance of
public spaces such as parks, libraries,

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etcetera. He' s got his
share of responsibility. However, it is

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not just about building more parks.
An article in Bloomberg magazine reflects on this.

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Creating spaces where interactions can occur involves
more than just installing a new park.

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Building a city to combat social isolation
involves a series of subtle strategies and

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intentional design decisions. For example,
in two thousand and sixteen Westpan Beach officials,

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Florida wanted to discover why the city' s promenade had so few visits

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before, despite its rows of palm
trees and an enviable view of Lake Board

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lagoon. For this they hired a
team of researchers and consultants, including the

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urban planning firm Happy Cityes. When
researchers sent volunteers to walk through space with

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sensors, they found high levels of
stress. According to Husam Elogda, managing

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director of Happy Cities, they found
that passersby felt that way because they did

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not feel welcome. According to the
perfect testimonies and places, but there is

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not much to do. There'
s vegetation, but no shade, there

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' s a novelty, but it
doesn' t work. I see this

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thinking about our cities in Colombia and
I wonder how we can design cities that

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are more friendly and help combat isolation. This told me Santiago Amador, director

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of ib O Laboratorio de Innovación Pública
de Bogotá. I believe that loneliness,

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like many other things, is a
systemic issue, that is, caused by

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many variables, both personal and intimate, as well as the context of the

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public, that the strong thing is
that they mix in different ways in each

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person. There are causes of loneliness
that are very personal and that ur paranal

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politics cannot directly control, such as
social anxiety, structural classism or family ruptures.

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But there are things the city can
do to fight loneliness. We can

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design and intend common spaces, public
space or cultural and sporting offerings, to

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create new ways to be together and
to create strong ties. And the key

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is to put people at the center
of the design process of all those elements

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and to mix public space with group
activity. Both at the same time.

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None alone can welcome people- centred
design rather than vehicles. For example,

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Bogotá today has examples of these new
ways of being together, such as the

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centers of happiness that Peñalosa was thought
to be or the masses of care that

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Claudia thought and that have something in
common and that is that they were designed

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from the needs of people. We
also have to generate parts of the city

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where people can walk to their destination
and there are on the way spaces and

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quality offer that is a kind of
oases to be together. It must also

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strengthen the social fabric with literatures that
in the United States have been very good

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in built and are the famous community
centers or be of your well- being.

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I think it' s time to
take more advantage of that public space

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generated by the last administrations and mix
them with the intended quality activities to create

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social links and rags to loneliness.
There are other reasons why social isolation and

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loneliness have increased and, of course, poverty and social destruction are one of

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them. The study, in fact, for forty of b for the newspaper

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the country that if you do a
few minutes, also found that loneliness,

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as well as other aspects of health, such as diet, is closely linked

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to the economic situation. There are
notable differences in the percentage of loneliness experienced

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in the last year between different groups, thirty- three per cent of unemployed

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people feel alone, which is ten
comma nine per cent higher than those in

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employment and eighteen comma five percentage points
higher than retirees. Among students, 27

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comma four percent is lonely and in
the case of workers, working conditions have

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an impact. Thirty- eight comas
three percent of those working at unusual times

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are affected by unwanted loneliness. This
situation, coupled with a shortage of economic

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resources, prevents them from organizing leisure
activities with others. In fact, eighteen

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comma nine percent of those surveyed have
as reason for loneliness the lack of financial

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resources to participate in social activities the
most popular motive. A BBC special on

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excluded children concludes that, in particular, children and young people may be socially

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excluded when they do not have the
financial means to participate in activities with friends.

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This can lead to feelings of isolation
and loneliness. And, on the

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other hand, even if you don' t believe it, machismo and the

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loss of what we know as soft
skills has also affected the ability to social

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ties. Dr Naiobi Way is a
professor of psychology at the University of New

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York. She is director of the
Human Connection Science Laboratory. She has studied

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loneliness for more than thirty years and
in this time has been able to find

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that over time more importance has been
given to economic and professional success than the

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ability to make friends and create strong
relationships and bonds with others. In this

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case, hard skills, which are
specific skills that are included in the resume

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and acquired through academic and work life, are given provisibility over soft skills,

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such as communication, empathy or listening
ability. In this sense, Dr Wai

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reflects that we are putting aside those
skills that we naturally have as humans to

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focus on competing in an increasingly hostile
world of work and economics. According to

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Dr Way, this is especially a
problem in young men, who find it

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difficult to maintain meaningful and profound relationships
with their peers, because the established model

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of masculinity, male norms, and
male expectations make close friendships something effeminate or

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gay rather than simply a human issue. So, as young people grow up

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and enter adulthood, they begin to
feel overwhelmed by the expectation that, somehow

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they have to be independent, they
cannot depend on others, they have to

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be completely autonomous that somehow, the
desire for intimacy with other kids is problematic

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in a culture that is hypermasculin.
How we can make new generations less lonely

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and create more meaningful relationships. I
asked Carolina Piñeros, director of Red Papaz,

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and this he told me to mitigate
the pandemic of loneliness that the World

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Health Organization is talking about. It
is essential to work on the development of

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socio- emotional competencies for the mental
health care of children and adolescents. These

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skills are knowledge, attitudes and skills
necessary to understand and manage the social and

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emotional aspects of our lives and thus
successfully solve the different challenges and tasks of

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the day to day. These can
be organized into five categories, self-

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knowledge, self- management, social
awareness, skills to relate and responsible decision

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- making. Some key strategies for
caregivers are to devote quality time, strengthen

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dual- track communication, have positive
parenting patterns, with clear limits, according

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to the age of the child,
recognize and validate their emotions and teach them

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how to pass through them. Teach
by example. It is also essential that

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mothers, fathers and caregivers take care
of our own mental health with acceptance,

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full consciousness and defictifying our values and
acting in accordance with them and having regard

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to ourselves. Loneliness in a hyperconnected
world looks like an oxymoron, but it

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' s not. We are social
beings and require companionship and dialogue, as

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well as need to eat and sleep
to live. Perhaps you now know how

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to raise your cellular gaze and establish
more human relationships or recover those we felt

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lost or distant. Perhaps it is
more necessary than as a society, to

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rethink our relationships that we meet again, to stop thinking that we all know

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about our friends and family through their
social media publications. It is also time

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for Governments to pay attention to a
mental health problem, which is as important

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as physical health, and there are
more channels of help than a 20-

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minute psychological scientum each month. And
if you know of someone that this omo

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feels alone, I don' t
doubt to understand the sea to offer companionship.

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I hope that this chapter will raise
awareness of this serious problem that we

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are in time to address. I
am Roberto Pomo and this was chapter eighty

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- nine of my questions. See
you in the next chapter starting From now

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00:28:15.640 --> 00:28:22.359
on, this chapter of my questions
is available on all podcast platforms. This

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00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:29.400
episode was made possible by Kafan.
Family compensation box. Dirección Roberto Pombo,

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00:28:29.720 --> 00:28:33.400
Producción General, juan Abel Gutiérrez,
Asesor editorial, Daniel San Pedro Espina,

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00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:40.519
scripts juan Abel Gutiérrez and Johnny Rodríguez. Field production Marcela Salazar and Lucía Beltrán.

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Post- production of audio Carlos Bernar