7 ms·
Not interacting with people reduces cognitive function over time, study finds
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- zagrebian 4y agoDoes Zoom count as interacting with people?
- nathias 4y agono
- jumpytrading 4y agoYes.
- moffkalast 4y ago...maybe?
- anewpersonality 4y agoLions Mane should fix this
- luckman212 4y agoEspecially when combined with microdosing /s
- rhexs 4y agoJust lions mane? Throw in some Ayurveda and probiotics as well. And CBD of course. With all that you’ll be immortal.
- anewpersonality 4y agoSource?
- eurasiantiger 4y agoImmortality is meaningless unless the world remains perpetually unsatisfactory: what would it mean to exist for an eternity unchallenged by what gives life meaning?
- short_sells_poo 4y agoWait, are you saying that the meaning of life lies in a Quixotic battle against a permanently unsatisfactory universe?
- z9znz 4y agoWell this is a deeply unsettling line of thought. 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.
- giantg2 4y agoWell I'm screwed.
- MrBlueIncognito 4y agoWe are screwed*
- mrwnmonm 4y agoxD
- widjit 4y ago
- Conlectus 4y agoThis is irresponsible reporting. The authors themselves have clarified that this is an _association_ study, whereas the above article claims that isolation is _causal_ to increased dementia risk. 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.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- photochemsyn 4y agoIndeed. The notion that decreased cognitive function is the cause of social isolation, not the result, seems equally plausible.
- hackernewds 4y agoOr entirely correlated like ice cream sales and drowning.
- coldtea 4y agoOr quite well correlated like flying kite with metal strings during a storm and getting hit by lighting. 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.
- coldtea 4y agoIf "decreased cognitive function" was the cause, then it should have been there before (or at the very beginning) of the social isolation (to cause it).
- koheripbal 4y ago
- exo-pla-net 4y agoThis studied severely isolated people. If you're interacting with other humans at least once a month, you wouldn't qualify. "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."
- sillysaurusx 4y agoSilly question, but how do you interact with people less frequently than once a month, yet engage in social activity more than once a month? Do they mean in-person interactions vs e.g. phone calls?
- eurasiantiger 4y agoSeems more like saying hi to the clerk vs having a conversation
- z9znz 4y agoSaying hi to a clerk means being in a public situation where you may not be talking to people, but you're definitely receiving lots of inputs about their behaviors and feelings (unless you are incapable of reading this). I think being in a place with other people, such as a shop, is of greater significance that merely saying "hi" to a clerk.
- eurasiantiger 4y agoDepends on the shop and the hour. A lot of people shop on graveyard shift to avoid other people.
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- 4y ago
- bm3719 4y agoI wonder if it's social interaction that human cognitive health is predicated upon, or just the ability to externalize one's thoughts along with a feedback mechanism. I've done a few lengthy stints of social isolation, and while real-time social skills invariably suffered, I was cognizant of this topic here and took steps to counteract it. The main tactic I used was writing long posts on forums and blogs. I conjectured externalizing/organizing thoughts was the core benefit from real-time, in-person social interaction. In fact, if you don't care about a decline in social skills, it seems this is a more efficient way of doing so and I'd go as far to say that my periods of isolation were of net benefit to me. 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.
- agumonkey 4y agoI'd bet solid money it's both. Biology might be wired to reward us to share and communicate with others regardless of the intellectual outcome of the interaction. It's a primal need.
- kirse 4y agothe ability to externalize one's thoughts 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-about-pain-make-you-heal-faster https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170601-can-writing-abou...
- social_quotient 4y agoIs this speaking about just IRL interactions or does an online interaction count as an interaction?
- juliecbills 4y agocan confirm.
- cube00 4y agoThis will be twisted to mount an argument to get people back into open plan office hell.
- koheripbal 4y agoWhich is why people here are attacking the article here despite it being good science.
- moffkalast 4y agoBecause we're all anti-social shut-ins around here, get with the programe.
- z9znz 4y agoOr we just hate the other employees who have 1-2 layers of mental structures to build to do their jobs, while ours are 3-5 and require more focus. 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.
- tunap 4y agoWhen I am on task I find others to be distracting, and that is my concentration problem, but it isn't an anti-social problem. I am not anti-social, I enjoy a certain amount of social interaction. I often prefer my lone time, more so. 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'.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mrweasel 4y ago
- jelsisi 4y agoDuring the height of the pandemic, I had such intense brain fog I couldn't retain anything I read. I would read then reread a sentence without being able to comprehend it. I didn't realize until now that I had gone weeks without socializing with friends face to face. Since restrictions have been lifted I feel like myself again.
- Blahah 4y agoThere are many possible factors, and they might interact. Social interaction might be a factor to some degree for some people. The stresses of a global pandemic that are not about social interaction might also contribute to some degree for some people. The fear of infection, the social conflicts and challenging of pre-pandemic social trust networks too, the uncertainty about the future of the world, the feeling of being trapped, the dissonance of sudden social reorganisation... all might be factors. 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.
- labrador 4y agoI'm much more myself and think more clearly when I'm not dragged down by other people. I'm one of those that thrives in solitude. The pandemic really made this clear to me. "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-misunderstood-wittgenstein-sartre-descartes https://www.vox.com/2014/11/17/7229547/philosophy-quotes-mis...
- nostrebored 4y agoDecline in metacognition seems like a likely symptom too
- labrador 4y agoI experienced a great increase in metacognition watching my thoughts and feelings come and go of their own volition and by their own logic. I'm sure over 99% of the population doesn't know anything about metacognition so being around them is unlikely to enhance it.
- gammabetadelta 4y agothe insipid conversation of others lays so heavy on me. 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
- eurasiantiger 4y agoHave we always been like this, or was it the others that made us like this?
- 4y ago
- rob_c 4y ago2. Long. Years. Later...
- Starlevel001 4y agoITT: maladjusted individuals coping
- TekMol 4y agoI was always rather introverted than extroverted. 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?
- blocked_again 4y agoJust goto office everyday. Play games(foosball, pool, boardgames etc) with your coworkers. Go out for lunch. Go out for happy hours. You would make friends automatically.
- TekMol 4y agoHaha, we are very different.
- eimrine 4y agoPodcasts will make you not interacting with people, but listening to podcasts. Talking to people, especially strangers is what you need. 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.
- kzrdude 4y agoFind a new activity. Maybe on meetup.com or any other similar way to do it. Hiking daytrip, playing a sport, random social event, anything
- m3kw9 4y agoNot interacting with anyone much at all could be because they have an underlying condition that predisposed them to dementia.
- mise_en_place 4y agoDementia and AD in its early stage cause social isolation, mainly due to fear (i.e. former acquaintances become literal strangers). This study just ended up affirming the consequent.
- ketanmaheshwari 4y agoI try to counter this with long walks and regular weight lifting. This is all I can do. After number of tries to get to talking with people I realized I am just not that type.
- niknoble 4y agoAll negative things are correlated, and all positive things are correlated. I'm so tired of studies that "discover" this for the millionth time.