Longevity Project

An interesting study, that has been researched since 1921, was finally published about longevity. Longevity is the length/duration of life and scienticists want to know what it is about the 1500 grade school students that led some to stay well and some to die or get sick.  Scientists Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin continue the research that first began in 1921. There are so many findings in their book and it would be difficult to name all of them, but I will talk about a few.
They found that many people who worked the hardest in their lives lived the longest. Most of the people still alive continue to work part-time or are still involved with their hobbies or profession. They found it isnt the "happy-go-lucky" who survive, but it is the people who are persistent and responsible who live the longest. Certain factors were found to increase the risk for cancer and violent deaths. These included stressful home life, lack of exercise in the middle and older years, radiation, and smoking. One really interesting thing they found was that having a strong social network was found to contribute highly to increased longevity. They also found that women are more likely to have a social support system than men and this may be why women tend to live longer. What counts is not how much you feel loved, but how much you feel needed.
The idea that social networking is more about being needed than loved is interesting. I guess they are saying that you could be loves by a few people, but they could die, move away, or just lose their capacity to care for you. When you take care of others though, you are likely to make and keep friendships throughout life. It's not like if you are social and have a facebook you will live a long time. What this study revealed is that social ties are critical and that having a large support network is directly correlated with a longer life. Facebook and blogging are both social networks that allow you to help and care for others. Social networking sites are not there so people can feel loved. They are there so that we, members of the public sphere, can help and care for others.
More and more adolescents are using the internet nowadays, and it would be interesting to see if there is any correlation between this and the length of our lives. After reading this study, it would be easy to think that Facebook and blogging might add years to your life, but I think it could be the opposite. After reading Turkle's "THe Nostalgia of the Young", I know that social networking sites pose problems for adolescents' social connectedness and well-being. Texting and instant messaging cause your attention to be elsewhere, and so the connections you are making with people are not very strong.  Many people may be physically close, but mentally they are not, because they are focussed on connecting with others. This leaves the other people feeling excluded and unneeded. It is hard to care for others and form strong connections with them when they are distracted by their devices. To some people, digital life cheats people out of learning how to read a parson's face and how to be authentic. I am no scientist, but it would be interesting to examine the affects of cell phones and the internet on longevity.