People now have fewer immediate relatives to connect with, and human relationships are maintained chiefly through smartphones. Those who find themselves with few real-life connections may die alone, and their families or relatives might not care.

We need face to face coregulation with others at our very core. Facial expressions, eye contact, body language, touch, soft melodic voice levels and safety cues, they all put us in our optimal psychological and physiological state. The phone is taking away these deep rooted human necessities and will have dire results. We are already starting to see them. Check out polyvagal theory for some groundbreaking new insights into what makes us tick. There’s some great stuff out there.

Well, that quote sure has cheered me up :-(

@Ricky, it's not the phone that's taking away interpersonal contact (call it what you will) but the internet and social media. They're both absolutely NOT face-to-face. The people who dwell on those media bring it onto themselves.

While I don't want to down play the importance of face to face interaction and relationships, but loneliness is but a feeling, and if the individual isn't feeling it then so be it. The concern should be what you should be doing while being alive, not how other feel or do not feel after you're dead.

...loneliness is but a feeling, and if the individual isn't feeling it then so be it. The concern should be what you should be doing while being alive, not how other feel or do not feel after you're dead.

Good observation. How many people show up at one's funeral means little to the deceased. Life is now. Who cares what they say about you after you die, or if they say anything at all? We are all forgotten at some point afterwards.

That said, real in-person relationships are very important. Not in any great quantity - that's not important - but of good quality.