That’s not the society we’ve been building. You can’t “other” whole groups of people and claim to be building community. You can’t post constant hate and outrage online and claim to be connecting. You can’t build community when people are forced to work 60-80 hours per week or two or three jobs to afford rent. We need a commitment to connecting people and building community with everyone. Our current path will only harm all of us.
If we’re going to become a less lonely society, we need to take advantage of opportunities to gather together. It’s that simple. It’s also becoming more challenging to do as we hide behind social media and news media, more interested in keeping us afraid of “others” so that we will continue to give them our attention.
We talk about loneliness as a mental health issue often. We complain about the lack of third spaces in society. We complain about how people don’t reach out anymore. What we likely don’t talk enough about is how volunteering to help other people is an antidote to all of that.
If we want a happier world, we need to stop finding reasons to avoid people and find ways to connect with people, even those who are not like us.
If you’re like me and don’t want to be open to lengthy conversations with strangers, this article is good news. Even small connections, a smile, a nod, or a pleasant “hello,” have mental health benefits.
It might also remind us of the humanity of the people around us. There are worse things.
I’m going to let you all in on my secret. I rarely feel like I have it all together. I know many of you are in the same boat. We go to work and pretend like we do, and maybe this is why we all feel like we have impostor syndrome, too, because we don’t always feel the same as the other people who always have it together.
I bet you can think of two or three people you interact with every week that you consider to have it all together. I’d also bet that if we could get inside their minds, they don’t feel like they do, just like the rest of us.
