Not interacting with people reduces cognitive function over time, study finds
infidelpro.com
infidelpro.com
From the authors:
> We agree with Dr. Kawada that no casual conclusion should be made in the present study, as it is an association study. We avoided using terms that imply causal inferences in the paper.
After all we know that people are social animals, that we acquire language and reasoning abilities by interacting with others in childhood (and children that are prevented from doing that have developmental problems), and that forced isolation in adults (in prison, lost in some forrest, or whatever) also brings several psychological and mental problems, and can even be used as punishment and torture.
Not that this is an easy topic to study, but although the scientists are experts, at least the article seems to show some large holes in the reasoning.
"Socially isolated as defined in this case is a person who lived alone, interacted with other people less frequently than once a month and engaged in social activities less frequently than once a week."
I think being in a place with other people, such as a shop, is of greater significance that merely saying "hi" to a clerk.
It does not mean there is no effect at lesser extremes.
The study established association not causality (as is also customary in initial studies).
I see it from time to time and struggle to understand it
In this case, GP suggests that GGP replace "effect" with "association".
The only caveat I can think of now is that many of the outlets for such interaction online are perhaps less useful for such purposes at present, and perhaps even counterproductive. For example, I'd recommend doing so anonymously and without being nudged by karma/upvote systems; like starting an anonymous blog would be a safe bet.
If you're truly stuck in that scenario I'd agree. I'd add that physically writing helps [1] even more than typing, since you're slowing down the externalizing and writing was one of the first means of expression you mastered unconsciously at an early age. I personally spend enough time expressing myself into code/"the internet" that writing feels less formal and it gets me away from screen burn.
Even further, thinking about how God, family, and friends would describe your events or provide their input also provides some of that cognitive boost. Like imagine writing the same journal entry but from five different perspectives.
That said I really don't try to invite social isolation into my life for long. Talking to a friend for 20min is better than any VR, Zoom, journal, etc. Part of the reason is it's also an opportunity to give back to friends... Give encouragement, give your time, give energy, give perspective. You can only love others so much through a journal, and as one Jesus once said "it is more blessed to give than to receive"
[1] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170601-can-writing-abou...
> I'd recommend doing so anonymously
I think a better way of getting this is to travel. You can be anonymous but still interact. You stay a week or a month, make some very light or light or even intimate connections, and then you move on.
It's still probably not as valuable as a quality fixed location scenario, but it's a much lower threat way.
Writing also externalizes your thoughts, yes. But in a person to person interaction you need to basically "get out of your own head" and externalize your thoughts in real time. You also get to read the body language of the other person, feel the "vibes", etc.
I think person to person interactions, especially if they are important relationships (significant other, family, friends) is what makes us human and I am actively trying to mindfully cut back my screen time both in PC and Phone and just start interacting more. Quite difficult being an introvert and shy person but I think it's worth it.
"Hell is other people" — because of how we are unable to escape the watchful gaze of everyone around us. "By there mere appearance of the Other," says Sartre in Being and Nothingness, "I am put in the position of passing judgment on myself as on an object, for it is as an object that I appear to the Other."
https://www.vox.com/2014/11/17/7229547/philosophy-quotes-mis...
i can't seem to ignore it and it bogs me down, i have to do so much too suppress my hatred of their banality
folks say im so wonderful in conversation but its more that if i let them talk, i suffer
thank you for sharing the sartre it's refreshing to see how true it is
others judge you, so you judge yourself, even if you don't care about them
covid was such a great relief to not have to interact with people
“Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes.”
― William Gibson
I think people are creative and intelligent, it's just that there are three spheres of life: public, private and secret. The public sphere isn't that interesting because people censor themselves so they don't get judged. People in the public sphere end up playing roles they learned and think that is how one should be in public. Most also have boring private lives.
Where it gets interesting is in our secret lives. I know people have rich secret lives because of the drama shows that people love but don't talk about because they give life to our fantasies and imagination, so to say what you really like about them would be too revealing.
There a couple of movies that demonstrate what would happen if people spoke about what was really on their minds with each other. In Judy Berlin a solar eclipse occurs but doesn't go away. It just stays dark for days and days so people start reaching out to each other trying to understand what is happening and in the process start telling the truth. Why not, because it's the end of the world.
Almost everyone I have worked with in my long career has had some very redeeming qualities. But many of them just had no concept what was required mentally for me (and my kind) to do our jobs.
We're not specifically anti-social, but we do want people to STFU enough for us to do the hard work.
Nit Alert: I wish people used 'unsocial' more often. Anti-social means one is hostile or disruptive to social engagement(s). It is thrown around way too often and has an entirely different context to just being 'less inclined to interact with others'.
Both are at the extreme ends of what you should be expose to, and both are based in science. But the middle is expensive, and even then people react differently to the same environments.
Reducing those commuting emissions should be the top reason to make WFH permanent where possible. There may never be another opportunity as good as the pandemic for reducing commuting to this extent.
I say this partly because, yes, your experience might be consistent with this article and I am sorry that you had to go trough that. And secondly to recognise that you went through so many different, unusual, traumatic experiences - and so did everyone else - that it is impossible to tell whether any specific one was the singular cause.
Life was hard in so many new ways during the pandemic. for me the main lessons are that we all deserve to focus on self care a bit more, and that we should really try much much harder to avoid future predictable catastrophes.
Let's turn this into reddit thread.
The Corona years have increased this tendency even more.
I think it is time to move the steering wheel of my life a bit into the direction of other people.
Since I really love to learn by listening to podcasts: Are there any good podcasts about how to make friends and become more sociable?
I have read a whitepaper which tells that most of 25+ y.o. people probably will never make new friends anymore. So I use to talk to random people in random situations as often as possible without annoying them. My rule of thumb is to get disappeared as fast as a discussion became even slightly boring for me or for them.
And CBD of course. With all that you’ll be immortal.
Fortunately we seem capable of narrowing our memory to "where we are now", so I have little doubt that infinite beings can keep ourselves entertained.
Even so, it would be nice to have a meta-scorecard for those in-between moments. I mean, I'd like to know if I ever cheated an entire country, became their great leader, and converted otherwise well-intentioned people into willfully-ignorant follower. As games go, that would be quite entertaining.