The global "epidemic" of loneliness: measures of state support for single people

Abstract

The modern development of digital technologies has led to the fact that absolutely all spheres of human activity have been transferred to the virtual space. Many state and political institutions are also moving to an online format (elections, judicial proceedings, municipal polls). The lack of "live communication" and the dominance of communications in the virtual environment have led to the problem of loneliness. The authors pay special attention to the world practice of combating this problem. The subject of the research: scientific works of Russian and foreign scientists devoted to the problems of social isolation and loneliness, normative and policy documents on the implementation of social policy in Russia and foreign countries, information and analytical materials of authorities and organizations containing statistical and other information on the research topic. The methodological basis of the research consists of general (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison) and private scientific (specifically sociological, statistical), as well as special legal (comparative law) methods of scientific cognition. The scientific novelty of the work consists in the strengths and weaknesses of existing methods of combating loneliness at the state level identified on the basis of an analysis of the practice of applying state support measures for lonely people in the UK, South Korea, Japan and Germany. A special contribution of the authors to the study of the topic is the study of the Russian practice of implementing measures of state support for single people in conjunction with the assessment of demographic indicators of the level of population growth in Russia, registered marriages and divorces, as well as formulated proposals for improving public administration in the social sphere. The authors conclude that people have forgotten how to build long–term strong relationships and, as a result, modern society is infected with an "epidemic" of loneliness, the consequences of which pose a threat to the development of the country and the well-being of the population.