The Importance of Social Connections

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During a TED Talks, a psychiatrist by the name of Robert Waldinger explains the emotional, mental, and physical toll an unfulfilled social life can take on your body. He explains that beginning in 1938 Harvard started "The Harvard Study of Adult Development." The study observed 724 men, a fraction of which even after over 80 Years, they are still observing. Along with many of their children.

Robert illustrates that there are "Three Big Lessons about Relationships."

"Social connections are really good for us, and loneliness kills."

In the study they discovered that people who felt more socially united, and more socially valued were not only healthier emotionally and mentally but were also healthier in a physical sense. They turned out to live longer than people who felt long periods of loneliness. Showing that loneliness's mental strain can turn into physical strain as well. "More than one in five Americans will report that they're lonely."

2. "It's the quality of your close relationships that matters."

As was mentioned in the first big lesson, emotional stress is a big factor in health. "The Harvard Study of Adult Development" saw that your social wellness is not defined by how many family members, friends, or romantic interests you have, but is determined by the quality of those relationships. For instance, having a large amount of friends who you constantly fight with, who continuously pick someone else over you, or even just don't put in an equal amount of effort in said friendship, is not a good quality relationship. Sometimes it is better to have only 1 or 2 friends who make time to spend with you, you have common interests with, and ultimately you don't have to question your relationships with. Just being able to say that you have a large friend group is not worth your mental and physical health.

3. "Good relationships don't just protect our bodies, they protect our brains."

The final lesson that Dr. Waldinger mentions is how good quality relationships affect our memory. People who had someone to rely on whether that be a friend, family member, or romantic partner had longer lasting and clearer memory, than someone who did not feel supported. The Harvard Study discovered that somebody who feels that they cannot reach out to someone else, tends to have an earlier onset of memory loss.

Dr. Waldinger gives a very thorough explanation of social health and its effects on the human body. It is interesting to see how emotional strain affects much more than just your emotional health. Good social connections can determine a great number of other things like, existing relationships, future relationships, physical health, and memory. I'd be very interested to watch more of Dr. Robert Waldinger's videos. Dr. Waldinger explains a complicated and sensitive subject in an effortless and easy to understand way. "Why is this so hard to get and so easy to ignore?"

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