Opinion Make more friends and live long? It’s not that simple

To live a long and healthy life, eat fish and vegetables. Move. Don’t smoke or snack. Get your full eight hours of sleep. And, above all, make friends. Because, it turns out, people’s social connections — the density of their network, the nature and strength of these relationships — are the key to longevity. This is the conclusion arrived at by a new book on the subject, The Laws of Connection by David Robson, which puts together the growing scientific evidence for why community is one of the top indicators for human health and wellbeing, and holds loneliness responsible for a range of ailments from depression to heart disease.

Intuitively, most people would agree with these findings. There is nothing quite like the heartache of being friendless, of being, as Olivia Laing, author of The Lonely City, put it, “… hungry when everyone around you is readying for a feast.” It can be physically and mentally debilitating, especially among vulnerable populations like persons with disabilities and the elderly. This is why governments and institutions around the world are rushing to address a problem that seems to have acquired epidemic proportions — from the WHO Commission on Social Connection, which was set up late last year, to the ministries of loneliness established by the UK and Japan in recent years.

Advertisement

In the digital age, as more people choose to work from home, have food and other essentials delivered to their doorstep and even access services like banking and healthcare through gadgets, it is all too easy to become unmoored from one’s community. This is where the root of the trouble lies, because the way humans live now — atomised and connected primarily through technology, instead of conversations and shared experiences — is so much at odds with how humans have evolved to live — in communities. Reconciling the two would require a new imagination of what it means to be human and be connected.