ocial scientists recently reportedthat in less than two decades “thenumber o people saying there isno one with whom they discuss impor-tant matters nearly tripled”. The numbero both kin and non-kin condants is de-scribed as “dramatically smaller” (McPher-son

et al

, 2006).Britons now spend approximately 50minutes a day interacting socially withother people (ONS, 2003). Couples nowspend less time in one another’s companyand more time at work, commuting, or inthe same house but in separate rooms us-ing dierent electronic media devices. Par-ents spend less time with their childrenthan they did only a decade ago. Britainhas the lowest proportion o children inall o Europe who eat with their parentsat the table. The proportion o people whowork on their own at home continues torise.

Biologist

| Volume 56 Number 1, February 2009

Well connected?

The biological implicationsof ‘social networking’

Title image

: Man atcomputer. Photo:Geoff Tompkinson/SPL

Aric Sigman

One of the most pronounced changes in the daily habits of British citizens is a reductionin the number of minutes per day that they interact with another human being. Recent his-tory has seen people in marked retreat from one another as Britain moves from a culture of greater common experience to a society of more isolated experience. She is in good com-pany, as Americans too step back from one another in unprecedented magnitude.

Image removed or copyright reasons

The Oce or National Statistics has just reported that “over the last two dec-ades the proportion o people living alonedoubled”, a trend now highly pronouncedin the 25-44 age group. For the rst timein our history a third o the adults in thiscountry live alone, a trend that looks setto continue.Britain’s disinclination or togethernessis only equalled by her veneration o com-municating through new technologies. Therapid prolieration o electronic media isnow making private space available inalmost every sphere o the individual’slie. Yet this is now the most signicantcontributing actor to society’s growingphysical estrangement. Whether in or outo the home, more people o

all

ages in theUK are physically and socially disengagedrom the people around them because theyare wearing earphones, talking or textingon a mobile telephone, or using a laptopor Blackberry. An increasing number o deaths caused by the wearers o MP3 play-ers inadvertently stepping into oncomingtrac has led to Senatorial proposalsor a New York State ‘distracted walkingbill’ to outlaw the use o mobile phones,handheld emailing devices such as Black-berries and video games while crossing aroad. Senator Carl Kruger described howpeople walking around ‘tuned in’ were, inthe process o being tuned in, being ‘tunedout’ to the world around them. The maladyis reerred to as “iPod oblivion”.

Eye and ear contact

Children now spend more time in theamily home alone in ront o TV/computerscreens than doing anything else (Sigman,2007). A study by the Children’s Societyrecently ound that television alone is dis-placing the parental role, eclipsing “by aactor o ve or ten the time parents spendactively engaging with children”. Anotherongoing study reports that 25% o Britishve-year olds own a computer or laptop o their own. In particular, the study notedan enormous increase in ‘social network-ing’ among younger children which “hasovertaken un (online games) as the mainreason to use the Internet”. UK social-net-working usage is now the highest in Eu-rope. The trend is set to increase: the BBChas recently unveiled the social network-ing site MyCBBC directed at children asyoung as six.Time that was previously spent inter-acting socially is increasingly been dis-placed by the virtual variety. A recent edi-torial o the

Journal of the Royal Societyof Medicine

made the timely point thatsocial networking “…encourages us to ig-nore the social networks that orm in ournon-virtual communities. … the time wespend socialising electronically separatesus rom our physical networks.” But whyprecisely should physicians be concernedabout these changes in people’s

actual

contact and interaction with one another?Moreover, what does biology have to oerin understanding what appears at rstsight to be a demographic phenomenon?

Genetic alterations

Social connection, both objective and sub-

Social networking |IOB

Volume 56 Number 1, February 2009 |

Biologist15

The developing world is ast adapting to electronic communications as well.

Years

H o u r s / d a y

109876543121987899193 95 97 99 01 03 05 07

Social Interaction vs Electronic Media Use

Social interactionElectronic media use

Figure 1

. Hours per day o ace-to-ace social interaction declines as use o electronic mediaincreases. These trends are predicted to increase (data abstracted rom a series o time-useand demographic studies).

jective, is increasingly associated withphysiological changes known to infuencemorbidity and mortality. However, the in-tricate mechanisms involved are only nowbeing understood. Recent research at theUCLA School o Medicine on the socialregulation o gene expression in leuko-cytes, the small white blood cells o thehuman immune system, has reported therst evidence that social isolation is actu-ally linked to global alterations in humangene transcription in leukocytes. Tran-scription involves the transer o geneticinormation rom the DNA molecule to themessenger RNA.DNA analysis identied 209 genes thatwere dierentially expressed in circulat-ing leukocytes taken rom subjects who re-ported high levels o social isolation versusthose reporting low levels. The dierencesbetween the groups included the increasedexpression o genes involved in immuneactivation, transcription control, and cellprolieration, and the decreased expressiono genes supporting the unction o theleukocytes (mature B lymphocytes) andType I intereron response. The research-ers ound impaired transcription in genes,which is central to our bodies mountingan anti-infammatory reaction to illnessor stress, reerred to as a glucocorticoidresponse. They also observed increasedactivity in the gene transcription controlpathways that

promote

infammation indisease and stress, and they now believethat this is a unctional genomic explana-tion or the greater risk o infammatorydisease and adverse health outcomes inindividuals who experience high levelso subjective social isolation (Cole

et al

,2007).

Immunological changes

Cytokines are compounds secreted by im-mune cells that have encountered a path-ogen, thereby activating and recruitingurther immune cells to increase the sys-tem’s response to the pathogen. Changesin people’s social contact have now beenlinked to alterations in tumour necrosisactor-alpha (TNF-alpha); an importantcytokine associated with tumour regres-sion and increased survival time or can-cer patients. In studying the relationshipbetween social contact and TNF-alpha inpatients with breast cancer, one team o researchers ound that patients report-ing increased social activities or satis-action exhibited stronger stimulatedTNF-alpha responses. In ovarian cancerpatients, patients’ degree o social supporthas been related to higher cytotoxicity inthe Natural Killer (NK) cells circulatingin the mononuclear cells o the patient’speripheral blood. These peripheral-bloodmononuclear cells (PBMC) are a criticalcomponent in the immune system, ght-ing inection and adapting to intruders.Higher cytotoxicity in the Natural Killer

IOB| Social networking

Biologist

| Volume 56 Number 1, February 2009

Some parts o the world still do not have access to email and the internet.

Differential Gene Expressionin Lonely Individuals

N u m b e r o f G e n e s D i f f e r e n t i a l l y E x p r e s s e d

5025025507510012515075100125150Up-regulated (78)Down-regulated (131)

Figure 2

. A total o 209 genes were dierently expressed in circulating leukocytes o subjectsexperiencing high subjective social isolation, including up-regulation o genes involved inimmune activation, transcription control, and cell prolieration, and down-regulation o genessupporting mature B lymphocyte unction and type 1 intereron response. There was a statisti-cally signicant net reduction in the number o expressed genes (131 down-regulated vs. 78up-regulated, dierence p<0.0001 by exact binomial test). (Adapted rom Cole et al, 2007.)