[quote TheDailyCarbunkle]Research with tens of thousands of people showed that it wasn't weight, alcohol consumption or even whether or not you smoked that was the greatest predictor of how long a person lives. In second place in the top ten factors that contribute to health and long life is close relationships, people you can rely on and talk to. In first place as in, the number one predictor of health and survival is the range of both strong and weak connections a person has, ie the extent to which they chat to people day to day - the person in the coffee shop, the cleaner at work, your neighbours. Conversely, not interacting with other people day to day, not having incidental conversations with people, has a massive impact on health. It is the primary factor that makes the difference.
This is an excellent talk about the effect of relationships on health, I'd recommend watching it: www.ted.com/talks/susan_pinker_the_secret_to_living_longer_may_be_your_social_life/transcript?language=en[/quote]
I find this very interesting but it actually backs what I instinctively believe about humans and how they thrive so I am a bit biased.
The data on suicides given by a PP is something I've been meaning to post myself for a while as I don't do the hyperbole around suicides ihelpful at the moment though I too am particularly concerned about young people at the moment
What I will say is that if you go back way before Covid there are many many many posts on here from people celebrating their antisocial tendancies. Moaning about minor irrigations from work colleagues who have the temerity to talk to them, refusing to answer door bells or phone calls because they are intrusive talking about how much they get an annoyed with everyone just for being alive . I think as a society we stopped aspiring to live like the people in that Ted talk a long time ago . The pandemic may be making things worse but our socially fractured society predates Covid by hundreds of years
The difficulty with that sort of life it that you so have to give up quite a few ' individual' freedoms for something bigger then yourself .
In the case of the Italian village, the people who care for the older residents despite them being grumpy and it being time consuming see it as part of a greater good. Their society places great value on outward forms of social interactions . Why do you think some cultures have strong social norms about hospitality and how you treat guests even if you loathe the guests ?
My mother lived a long life and throughout it was surrounded by people visitors and friends . She managed to create this even in her care home at the end when most people are totally alone. She did this by a lifetime of feilng obliged to be hospitable ,despite her not actually liking some of them (I know as she often moaned about some of them to me). I often accused her of hypocrisy in my youth but I know better now
To her whether she liked someone or not was irrelevant to whether she talked to them ,helped them or let them into her home. Our home growing up was FULL of people all the time. Some family but also friends, neighbours, ex lodgers , friends of friends . People came all the time and were welcomed.
When my mother was old, many of them people visited her in her care home . Not once or twice but regularly over the two years she was there and this gave her comfort whether she liked the visitor much or not