
Writing for the site The Women on the Web, Zaslow says, “A host of studies show that having a close group of friends helps women sleep better, improve their immune systems, stave off dementia and actually live longer.”
Writing for the site The Women on the Web, Zaslow says, “A host of studies show that having a close group of friends helps women sleep better, improve their immune systems, stave off dementia and actually live longer.”
This was an epiphany for me. It's discouragingly true and more evidence of the current post-human society (people are more comfortable with technology than humans).
No wonder it's virtually impossible to develop close friendships & interactions with other people when email & text messaging are virtually the only acceptable forms of communication.
How do you establish new friendships when nobody wants to communicate via voice or in person? I would venture to say that these less intimate forms of communication would drastically slow any development of acquaintance to close friendship.
This article describes exactly what I've become - more comfortable with technology than human interaction. But at the same time, I don't want to continue living virtually friendless and very little meaningful human contact.
Given this trend towards preferring technology over humans, is it becoming impossible to find new and meaningful friendships?
"In the last five years, full-fledged adults have seemingly given up the telephone — land line, mobile, voice mail and all. According to Nielsen Media, even on cellphones, voice spending has been trending downward, with text spending expected to surpass it within three years."
- Don’t Call Me, I Won’t Call You - Discovery Zone (view on Google Sidewiki)
- Rachel Bertsche: The Geography of Friendship (view on Google Sidewiki)
"It's why nearly half of us report being only one confidant away from feeling socially isolated. Many of us do not even have that one. It's a significant factor in increasing depression in women. It's why we seem more networked than ever, and yet, ironically, lonelier. It's why we know more people, and yet seem to be known by none. We hope and we wait. To walk around with the belief that real friendships happen automatically is detrimental."
- Shasta Nelson, M.Div.: Friendships Don't Just Happen (view on Google Sidewiki)