Human evolution has long occurred with people working, living, sleeping and eating together.

Even today we see examples all over the world of indigenous peoples living together. We often see them hunting together, sharing their food land and shelter. They are the present picture of how our ancestors once lived. Our modern lives are significantly different from theirs; a large portion of us do not hunt or work together with our community, for our community; instead we often find work not knowing most of the people we work with or the people our products will be directly affecting. We rarely share our food with people outside of our families as we have a distinct connection to this food: my work has paid for this food therefore it is mine. Like our connection with our food we see the same connection with our land and shelter. It is obvious that their lives together hugely consisted sharing, which means that they took care of each other; ones mans worries were shared by the community, one mans problems could be solved by the community. It is obvious that in the modern world the vast majority of people do not live like this. In modern North America the opposite has recently begun to happen. People are choosing to live further away from each other, they have and stronger sense of ownership and a higher sense individuality. People in turn are becoming more isolated from each other when compared to their indigenous ancestors. One mans worries are his own; one mans problems are solved by himself. As one can imagine, this change has greatly affected man; there is far more stress and anxiety and fear involved in dealing with some problems alone (Perceived social isolation and cognition). However one could think of many normal stresses which are inevitable and almost a necessary part of living in the modern world where society is massive when compared to an indigenous tribe. In North America social isolation has been one the rise in the last 20 years, social connectedness is being lost and social support is losing popularity. One can logically conclude why in a society as large as North America it is inefficient and unfair to work or hunt with people solely from our community whose families we would know for generations. Similarly, we would also find it inefficient and unprofitable to work solely for our community. However, large multinational corporations have employed Americans for nearly 100 years without any significant changes in rates of social isolation. Looking at the growth and modernization of our society over the past 20 years we have experienced a significant change in culture. The way North Americans shop has changed from Main Street to strip malls, mega malls, big box stores and ample parking. The way North Americans live have changed; with an increase in housing size and an exodus to the suburbs. The way North Americans work has changed to include longer commutes and longer hours. Most importantly, North Americas technological revolution has changed the way in which people communicate and receive and manipulate information. These changes in the have contributed to the prevalence in social isolation in North America. ****Gathering together, preparing food together; the way indigenous people live and how our ancestors had once lived. This had later evolved into people from a community gathering at a market usually based in the middle of the community; this was known as Main Street in North America before the onset of malls, strip malls, big box stores, ample parking and other corporatized retail. A local area; where people come together to shop and inevitably socialize. With the emergence of malls, strip malls, big box stores and ample parking a shift from Main Street and the local market has occurred and moved such community places out of the community center to the outskirts of cities and communities due to the large amount of

space that they take up and the cheaper cost of land. **** Social Networking, 24 hour mobile reception, media sharing, unlimited short message services, virtual friends, acquaintances and associates. Our Western society has pioneered long range communication all the way from the telephone to the internet to todays Androids, Iphones and Blackberries. However as the communications market has grown in the past 20 years we have begun to see that at the same time North Americans are becoming more socially isolated. Surveys have shown that 25% of Americans have no social support at all; more surprisingly over 50% have no social support outside of their immediate family. Social isolation when looked at from an evolutionary perspective is very detrimental to the human psyche: historically humans have been living together in groups relying on each other for support and comfort. We see this urge for social interaction with the social networking site, whose users make up 41% of the American population. The social networking and dating site EHarmony recently stated that 2% of modern American marriages can be attributed to them. It is obvious that social isolation has been able to penetrate all of our efforts to enhance communication though the virtual realm. In modern North America people have learned to live with the computer and the internet; it has become a necessary part of life for many. *statistic on how many people have computer or smartphone in the USA* The internet is used as a tool for communication and sharing information, bringing the thoughts of many people to one place to be viewed by anyone with an internet connection. Time spent on the computer is time spent isolated from others, a persons browsing history and online activity is considered to be private. UK research group Cybersentential found that one in three children hide from their parents what they view online, this information is even more staggering with the fact that children aged 8 18 in the US spend 31 hours a week online; comparable to the time an adult would spend at a full time job and even more staggering 65% of American kids aged 13 18 have face book continuously on throughout the day be it thought the computer or Smartphone. Another study shows that American adults spend roughly 13 hours a week online, a number that has been continuously been growing since 2000. This is not quality time which is spent with family friends or with ones community; but rather, it is time spent communicating with people on the internet or time spent acquiring or manipulating information. Despite such a large population of people using social networking and online messaging; levels of social isolation have not gone down but have instead kept on increasing Studies have shown that these virtual interactions are cognitive capacities to try to fill a social void (Ozcan, 2007). This is because the brain does not register these interactions to be rewarding. Unlike communication over the internet or text messages actual social interaction stimulates a person; it allows them to show their body language and to read the body language of another; it promotes them to think quicker and to act in real time; it shows how people interact with others and the world. Studies have shown that positive social interactions activate the ventral striatum (the region associated with reward and appetitive behavior). However, the question still exists as to why American children spend so much time online during the day. Ozcan has found that large amounts of time spent using the computer were a byproduct of limited social support; which implies that the time using of social networking and other forms or virtual communication is likely a cry for more social

support. Furthermore, studies have shown that socially isolated people tend to view interpersonal interactions to be less pleasant (Hawkley). Social isolation and perceived social isolation is directly correlated to people who lack social support. The human mind often tries to cognitively alleviate this isolation because from an evolutionary perspective people have long lived together, much like the tribal indigenous peoples of today. Being excluded from the community or tribe mean that you had to deal with survival by yourself, obviously this brought the excluded more anxiety and fear and danger. **Social pain is a real pain study ** Research on social isolation shows that in a situation where participants were included or excluded from a ball tossing game, the participants who were excluded revealed neural activation which was localized in a dorsal portion of the anterior cingulated cortex; which is an affective component of the physical pain response. Eisenberger suggests: because of the adaptive value of mammalian social bonds, the social attachment system may have piggybacked onto the physical pain system to promote survival (p291.) Individuals who feel social isolation try to find ways to alleviate this pain by using cognitive processes (Cacioppo and Hawkley, 5). Our modern way of life provides a wide array of tools and programs to alleviate this pain, such examples include team sports and clubs. However there are many which alleviate the pain but are still harmful for the individual because they do not help promote social interaction, instead they offer quite the opposite. Social isolation has been found to promote relationships with imaginary television characters 47, virtual connections, and obsessions with technological. Such modern tools along with the cognition of alleviating pain put people in a downward spiral in terms of social interaction, they start trying to replace social with these cognitions. Interactions with socially isolated people are less satisfying and often tend to feel colder than with people who arent lonely. This is due to this anxiety and fear of negative evaluation, making it harder for isolated individuals to create new social interactions 30. The preceding information shows a certain trend: people who lack social support and who have access to technology are likely to search for social support or social interactions using gadgets and/or virtual communications. In their search for rewarding interaction they actually become more isolated because of the time spent away from real interaction. This promotes the electronics and communications market to meet the level of demand for such devices or communications programs. Today we see how the market has developed online dating sites making it possible to meet new partners online without the need of approaching them in public, smartphones now have the capacity to provide the information of the known universe to quote Apple CEO Steve Jobs in the palm of anyones hand who can afford it. The change in where we choose to live our lives has greatly changed over the last two decades. Once living together in small communitys dependent of each other, today we see North Americans migrating to the suburbs. These are obviously not tight knit communities but are communities that are reliant mostly on the automobile and are relatively far from the inner city from a pedestrians point of view. To put this growth into perspective: from 1981 to 2001, the suburban population in Canada has increased by 87% (StatsCan). This large shift in the way that North Americans live is starting to show several psychological changes. Most notably it has allowed people to become more individual and to have more privacy. This is evident in the statistics regarding home size: the average American home has a total area of 2700 square feet,

compared to 1700 in 1970. This has fostered the privatization of many public realms; homes in North America now include home theatres, bars, gyms, recreation rooms and formal dining rooms. Due to this privatization the demand for such public realms in these communities has sharply dropped thus drastically limiting the opportunity for members of these communities to interact. Commuting within, in and out of the suburbs is predominantly done by car because of the low population density and the ease travel by car. North America has heavily invested in roads and highways; the United States has the most kilometres of road in the world despite that fact that it is not the largest country in the world. Effective public transportation in North America is confined to large cities with large population densities: where it is more cost effective to build large scare public transit due to higher tax revenue extracted from the higher population density. This is why the average American man spends 81 minutes behind the wheel each day while for women it is 63 minutes; a figure which has continually increased over the past 25 years***. However, this time spent behind the wheel takes away from social interaction. The reduction of public realms as well as the sharp increases in time spent driving led many to feel alienated from their surroundings as well as their communities; living their lives between home, their car and work. A study done by Oliver in 2001 shows that people living in places with a higher number of drivers reported that they felt far less satisfied with their neighbourhood.***more evidence** These results however, are not all that surprising considering the drawbacks of a community reliant mostly on driving. Such drawbacks would include the cost of visiting a friend or loved one, the conflict over who will drive, and the loss of direct contact with society and community. Oliver also found that people living in the outer city or suburbs on average visited their friends less than would people from the inner city. This supports the notion that when people live in relatively low density they tend to interact with each other less. He had found though his study that people who had reported greater contact with friends, who are married and who have a greater sense of community were the ones who reported greater happiness levels. Indicating that more effort is required to stay in contact with friends, loved ones, and the community is need to achieve the same level of happiness. Of course, this information does not necessarily show that that living in suburban a neighbourhood and relying solely on the automobile to interact causes social isolation. Nevertheless, the relevant evidence does show that such an environment can easily leave a person prone to social isolation. Equally as important, we see that many individuals living in such circumstances become more prone to perceived isolation meaning that they lack quality in their closest social interactions. Perceived isolation can be caused from interaction which are bread from situational circumstances such as work, team sports, and/or school. In these places individuals may not have time to develop qualitative relationships. In a study done in 2009 by Cacioppo and Hawkley it was shown that social isolation as well as perceived isolation predicts increases in depressive symptomatology. Therefore, the leading reason psychologists were not able to find any depressive symptoms in indigenous tribes could be because they were never alone; all live, work, and play together. More importantly the fact that they rely on each other for survival breeds community values which are genuine; meaning that no one is left alone to deal with their problems. Building genuine qualitative realationships with friends, family, and loved ones takes time and commitment. This is certainly true for raising children, who require time for guidance

and love. Spending a large amount of time from loved ones and friends can most certainly leads to loneliness. In todays modern industrialized economy North America is an overworked continent, both in terms of paid and unpaid work (unpaid would include volunteering, education, and housework). A 2001, survey shows that Canada is ranked fourth among OCED nations at just over 510 minutes a day, while the United States clocked in at just over 500 minutes a day, this is a huge amount considering that weekends and holidays were included in the numbers. Studies reveal that Canadians work on average a whole day more per week now than they did in 1980. Compared to tribal indigenous people, many North Americans do not work with people their direct community and they certainly dont on average work in or close to their communities. The tribal aboriginals In fact work with their community and their family to hunt, gather, and build together in close proximity to each other; they do not have to punch in or commute to work. Similarly, the only places in North America where psychologists were could not find any signs of depression were Amish and Mennonite communities who much like the indigenous tribal peoples live, work, and play closely together. North Americans however on average do not work with people from their communities. **survey source** states that the average commute in to work in the United States is 28 minutes while Canada closely follows at 26, doubling both numbers indicates both countries spend roughly an hour on average getting to and from work. Within this data information about dispersion also appears: if the workplace is considered to be a center point then workers could be commuting from any direction. For example: if one Canadian worker is 26 minutes from his workplace and his co worker who happens to live the same commute time away but in the exact opposite direction want to meet at one of their houses one of them would have to travel for 52 minutes. The effect of all of this time spent working has led to lower levels of satisfaction among North Americans; there is a negative correlation between hours worked and life satisfaction (Kasser). An emerging problem in affluent suburban neighbourhoods in North America is depression and high rates of drug use and addiction. **find the soucrce for this*** Studies show that such behaviour is correlated to achievement pressures, excessivie perfectionism on achievements and isolation from adults and parents. (Lack of after school supervision and low closeness to mothers and fathers. The intense alienation from parents is said to come from a pursuit of personal ambitions who are overinvesting psychic energy in material goods. Studies show that there is a negative relationship between socioeconomic status and teenagers self reported happiness. (Csikszentimhalyi and Schneider, 2000). This lack of supervision implies that there is no community or family involvement in protecting and guiding these teenagers while the parents are away. However it is not only the children of these parents who feel socially isolated, many overworked parents also become socially isolated as their materialistic drive damages their ability to form social bonds, causing them to treat other people as resources and less as qualitative interactions.

Eisenberger NI, et al. Does Rejection Hurt? An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion. Science 2003;302:290292. [PubMed: 14551436] http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=5095 : kids use facebook continuously Privileged but Pressured? A Study of Affluent Youth Suniya S. Luthar and Bronwyn E. Becker :suburban kids lack of parental support due to overworking.