Posted in health, notes on the human condition, tagged 1957, 35 percent less likely, activities, affect, Ann Arbor, apart, appearances, artificial, attendance, blessings, bonds, Bowling Alone, break, breakdown, caregiver, cave, challenges, charity, chips are down, chronic, church, circumstances, closing, club, commitment, commonalities, community, comparisons, competition, connectedness, connection, consequences, cope, data, development, diagnosis, differences, difficult, dignity, disconnect, displaced, distance between, don't be a stranger, downsized, Easy Street, economic, effect, effort, employees, envy, example, exclude, fair weather, fear, friends, friendships, group, groups, hard times, hardship, hermit, how to, identity, illness, implications, individuals, involvement, isolation, Jennie E. Brand, job, job loss, job market, join, Joneses, keeping up, laid off, layoff, leave, livelihood, lives, lonely, long-term impact, longitudinal, Los Angeles, lose, loss, luck, meeting, membership, mental, miss, model, needs, nonprofit, normalcy, notice, organization, others, out of business, outgroup, participation, people, personal, pride, prime of life, professional, PTA, reach out and touch someone, reciprocal, reconnect, recovery, reestablish, regain, regroup, rejection, religious, relocating, repercussions, researchers, respond, restructuring, retreat, role, safety net, service, sever, shorten, skills, social contract, Social Forces, social lives, social science, socialize, sociologists, spiritual, starting over, study, superficial, support group, team, tough people, tough times, trials, UCLA, unemployed, University of California, University of Michigan, US News and World Report, Wisconsin high school graduates, workforce, youth on July 24, 2009 |
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Don’t be a stranger.
That’s the message of a 45-year-long study according to US News and World Report in “Job Loss Has Long-Term Impact on Social Lives“.
Once someone in the prime of life suffers a layoff or is otherwise displaced from the workforce, community connections — anything from a PTA meeting, charity involvement, sporting team or church attendance — are severed for good at least 35 percent of the time, study results show.
Perhaps this comes as a surprise. It shouldn’t. How many of us have grown distant from someone simply because they left our school, workplace, club or church?
And how many of us, by the same token, have isolated ourselves because we fear that others will judge us when the chips are down?
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Posted in health, technology, tagged agriculture, Amazon, appliance, area, biodegradable, boards, book vs. Kindle, books, breaking point, byproducts, calculate, carbon footprint, carcinogenic, centralization, chemicals, children, chip, chips, circuits, clean, coal power, computers, computing, conscious, conservancy, consumption, contaminated, cost, costly, costs, cultivated, dangers, data centers, degradable, demand, devices, disposable, dumb, e-lusion, e-readers, e-waste, Earth, eco-conscious, electricity, electronic frontier, electronics, Elinor Abreau, energy, energy vampires, environmental, environmental awareness quotient, equation, exposure, factories, First World, footprint, forested, free lunch, gadgets, Gaia, gasses, gear, geek, globe, Google, gray, gray side to green, Green, green is gray, green side, grid, growing, harm, hazardous, heavy metals, high-tech, human health, hypocrisy, IBM, impact, industrialization, Industry Standard, infrastructure, integrated circuit, Internet, IT/IS, Jeff Monroe, Kindle, land, lead, library vs. Internet, limit, load, love affair, manufacturing, megawatts, MEMEX, Microsoft, minimal, misinformation, modernity, myths, nature, nerd, net, network, newspapers, obsession, online, overuse, paper vs. digital, paperless, PCs, perceptions, petro, petroleum products, planet, plants, plastics, politics of green, population, power, power grid, price, print, production, public, public health, quantify, question, reader, reading, reality check, recyclable, recycling, renewable, reproductive, requirements, researchers, resources, scrap, semi-conductor, server farm, Silicon Valley, simple, sites, smart, smokestacks, solution, steward, tech, technology, territory, Third World, threat, toxicity, toxins, trade, trees, trendy, USA Weekend, usage, Vicki Kriz, waste, web, woodland, workers, world wide web, Yahoo on July 14, 2009 |
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Trees: 181,000 of them to be exact. That’s the number of leafy green lives we will save if we pay our bills online, writes Vicki Kriz, author of GreenSmart: Save trees, pay bills online in a July 5, 2009 USA WEEKEND Magazine column. A wise idea, right? “To find out the impact your household could make, use the ‘Green Calculator’ at payitgreen.org,” the article concludes.
That’s all well and good, but who’s asking the even bigger question: How many trees are we trading for coal-burning smokestacks vis-à-vis the increasing load our proliferating gadgets place on the electric grid?
Consider the carbon footprint of the Internet itself. The electrical requirements are astounding, yet as long as the public perceives all things Internet and electronic as a “free Green lunch”, no end to this grand, green e-lusion lies in sight.
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