Saturday, 25th May, 2013
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The first book of the Torah acknowledges a simple truth: mankind is a social creature. As the sole member of mankind, Adam wanders the garden, alone and in need of human companionship. God, realising that need for a population increase, declares, “It is not good that man is alone; I shall make him a helpmate opposite him”.
Mankind’s oldest problem still persists and today many people live isolated, without constant or meaningful contact with other people. This problem is especially prevalent in people aged 75 and over with the Campaign to End Loneliness reporting that ongoing research, “has found a fairly constant proportion (6-13%) of older people feel lonely often or always.” The 2001 census revealed that almost 1 in 5 elderly people go a whole week with no contact from their fellow man.
Thanks to advances in medical research and a rise in living standards people are living longer with each succeeding generation. In fact, the elderly population is predicted to almost double by 2030. But as we move forward increasing numbers of people are being left behind and forgotten about.
There are numerous factors contributing to this: changes in the way people communicate, the rise of technology and an increasingly transient community are all playing their part.
In a world ever more reliant on the internet for communication and contact, a generation unfamiliar with social media do not have the means or knowledge to adapt to a life dominated by online social communication. In June 2012, a survey of over 24 popular social media sites such as, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Linkedin, found that only 2% of users were over the age of 65. Facebook alone has now surpassed 1 billion users, with only 3.5% of those over that age.
If I were isolated in my home and perhaps a little less physically able, I believe the internet would be my virtual life jacket, pulling me back to the world of people. Within our elderly population there is a significant group who do not have this option. Any of us who has ever tried to explain Facebook to our grandparents knows how alien the technology appears to them.
Of course, longstanding factors are still playing their part: physical ableness (or lack of), elderly friends and family dying leaving their loved ones behind, and further cuts to relevant government funded schemes are still taking their toll.
I once wrote, “It is truly terrible to feel alone in the world; to go through life without a sense of shared-love or companionship . A lack of this, as vital to survival as water or food, can destroy a person and leave them feeling hopeless and frightened.”
A 2011 Jewish Policy Research report on “Key trends in the British Jewish community” found that, “In general, the Jewish population [in the United Kingdom] is an ageing one” and that “most Jews would prefer to stay in their own homes, if at all possible, rather than move into a
care home.” This goes someway to explaining why between 1,700 and 3,000 ‘meals-on-wheels’ are distributed each week within the Jewish community. If you are looking for a way to engage with the elderly, ‘meals-on-wheels’ is a good place to start. You can find out more information by clicking here.
The National Association of Jewish Homes provides a free online directory of all Jewish care homes in the United Kingdom and is good starting point for your intergenerational mingling journey. Many homes have schemes or can put you in contact with the relevant people if you’d like to make home visits to non-residentials in their community. Get in touch with your nearest home for more details or contact Jewish Care.
Whilst we reexamine and readjust to an aging population the best possible thing you can right now is pick-up a packet of biscuits and head-on over to an isolated friend or neighbour for a pot of tea and a natter.
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David Yehuda Stern is the Social Action and Sustainability Co-ordinator for the JCC for London. He is currently working with Contact the Elderly to create a Friendship Club in and around the Camden area to tackle loneliness and social isolation among older people. If you’d like to volunteer to help or know someone who might benefit from the club you can email him at david.yehuda@jcclondon.org.uk
3 Responses to Isolated Space: beyond the reaches of social media
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I used to look after an elderly lady whom I actually got on contact through after hearing her on the radio . After I got married I found difficult to keep up the help. This is a great idea and will find out FBI can get involved and whether I can bring my daughter along too
Good post, David! Very important that we take the time to look after the elderly. Kol HaKavod!
It’s true that a whole generation of older people is being left behind by social media, but these networking sites have a whole lot to answer for in terms of their impact on our generation. Facebook, with its relentless insistence that everyone you know is constantly out, about, and having fun can have just the opposite effect, heightening the sense of loneliness in those already vulnerable. Of course, the Amanda Todd case reminds us of the risks of too much connectivity. I’m not advocating a head-in-the-sand approach, but I will say that it’s no bad thing that we need to actually engage the elderly in person, rather than just setting up a facebook page for them to like or a twitter account for them to follow.