September 24, 2020
Life has changed a lot for most of us in the modern world. With the advancement of technology, each new generation is following a different lifestyle and their life is becoming easy and fully supported by AI. As a result, this has caused the illusion of ‘extra’ empowerment among the younger generation so much so that some feel very self-sufficient. It is true that technology has opened new channels of communication, improved social engagement and everyone has a better opportunity to connect with more people. But we should also know that machines and virtual experiences can never fulfill our desire to connect face to face with new people, friends, or relatives. Additionally, the technologies can replace the importance of connecting with family. Therefore, no matter how much technology intervenes in our lives, it can never replace the role, comfort, and importance of family support.
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family:
Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.
Jane Howard
Why Family support is crucial
i) It fulfills emotional needs
We, as humans have more emotional needs than any materialistic needs. Moreover, those emotional needs can never be fulfilled by cars, phones, or any other luxuries. Because we crave human attachment. We need care, reassurance, and love by humans. But why do we need to be loved in the first place? Why is it so important? Here you can read more about the importance in human psychology behind love and why should we love in the first place?
Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash
Considering importance of love for our emotional needs, if we want to find it, its very initial source for a human being, it starts with the love of a mother. And expands to the love of a father, siblings, and whole family. Therefore, a family is a first and most effective pillar in fulfilling our emotional needs and that increases the importance of family support for any person.
ii) Sense of belonging
Aristotle the legendary Greek philosopher said
Man is by nature a social animal
This means that society is something that precedes the individual. Humans always want to associate themselves with a group or community. Just like today on social media, there are private groups, space, and private chats and we love to join them and feel satisfied. The importance of family support is so obvious because family is the first to fulfill our need for belonging.
iii) Cause of Happiness
According to the longest (80 years) longitudinal study on Harvard graduates, results show that the biggest factor for happiness is having good relationships. We can not stress this more about the importance of family support and having a healthy relationship with family members.
Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.
iv) The family acts as a role model
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
The above statement is self-sufficient to explain how the behavior of elders and especially parents, influences the behavior and attitude of children. Although different parenting styles have different effects on the children, a balanced parenting style will bring the best out of a kid. So, a good family always portrays a good picture of themselves in front of the children. And the children subconsciously absorb more on what we do, rather than what we tell them to do. Hence good behavior is mostly the result of a good family environment.
Conversely, if the environment in the family is negative then the child will adopt it as well, no matter if you tell them not to follow. More on this will come in the disadvantages section.
v) Helps with financial needs
This is subjective. Yet some people do not prefer getting financial support from parents when they are already grown up. But a family sometimes proves to be a backup. Nevertheless, it gives satisfaction that we have a backup to depend on.
Disadvantages of not having good family support
If God forbid, somebody chooses to avoid his/her good family, or lives in a bad family, or in some cases — does not have a family— it affects them negatively. A good parenting approach is necessary (which should be a mixture of positive parenting methodologies as mentioned above in this article Parenting styles and their effects). So a dysfunctional family also leaves scars on human minds and affects their behaviors. And those scars need extra care and time to be healed when a person grows up. Here you can read a complete article about what is a dysfunctional family, its causes, effects, and how to deal with it.
Moreover, not having family support not only affects humans physically, mentally, and emotionally. But rather sometimes they become a burden to society and surroundings as well. The following are some unfortunate consequences if a person does not experience nice family support.
Falling into addiction
The people with a background of insufficient family support are more likely to face addiction to smoking or drinking. Plus, they are also likely to get addicted to gambling, which could cause them lose all their money. This can happen due to different reasons. Either they want to cope with their depression by escaping the reality or maybe they take revenge from the injustice of life, by not taking care of their lives. You can learn more here about what depression is, or if it’s necessary— How to take care of your mental health using 5 senses. In any case, addiction of an adult causes another dysfunctional family, with insufficient family support. This is why the importance of family support should never be neglected. As a supportive family creates a loop of other functional and supportive families and a non-supportive family creates a loop of more non-supportive and unhappy families.
Aggressive personality
Another most common trait when a person does not have a caring family is that they develop a lot of mental issues as well. One of them includes aggressiveness. They are likely to get triggered by even minor issues like a traffic jams, not finding parking place, or just when it rains more than usual, etc. Moreover, insufficient family support can also cause narcissism in people.
Unable to form good relationships
This is one of the most overlooked disadvantages, especially if a person lives in a toxic family environment. Some of these people will not be able to form good relationships in the future with their life partners and family. You may ask, why? Growing up in a dysfunctional family can lead a person to be unpredictable, chaotic, and unsafe. They may feel that they are unimportant and unworthy. They cannot trust people easily and always remain in doubt. Hence, these traits make it difficult for them to hold on to a partner for a long time and vice versa. Even if they become successful in hiding their insecurities (if not treated and healed), it always create some extra issues and trouble for their relationships or family.
Conclusion
Hence, no matter whatever our ambitions in life are or whatever our stage of life is now and to which extent modern society or AI advances, the importance of family support will remain the same, if not increase.
As Guy Lafleur says
When trouble comes, it’s your family that supports you.
Liza Aslam Chaudhry
Liza is a student of electrical engineering, and besides that, she is a passionate writer & reader. Being an observant yet sensitive person, she loves to write about psychology, mental health, social issues, personal development, brands & technology. Occasionally, Liza becomes a poet too. She knows to make her content optimize and reachable to provide quality and value to the masses. Moreover, Liza is writing for a few blogs and websites to help them grow their readers and enhance SEO.
