Loneliness and social isolation have become chronic issues across the world. We must resist attempts to close down meaningful human interaction, writes Husna Ara.
Been seeing lots of studies on the subject pop up and at least for millennials and younger finances were a major reason for isolating. Work a ton and broke isn’t a good environment to build relationships.
I don’t buy this alone as the reason. At the surface level it makes sense, it costs money to socialize outside of the home by going to a coffee shop or bar or what not. But on a deeper level it doesn’t hold up, because when times get tough financially, a great way to reduce costs is to collectivize expenses.
For example, I know two different groups of friends that are living together as households and sharing costs of living in a way that meaningfully reduces the cost of living. One group has twelve people living in a quadplex. They share groceries, home costs etc. The other is 5 people living in a single family home doing a similar setup. Significantly cheaper than renting a 1 bed or studio apartment and living alone or with 1 or 2 roommates. The other benefit, you feel less alone because you are building a life with many other people. Not just the people you live with, but it also gets easier to invite people to your home because you well… have a home that’s inviting and welcoming. Makes it cheaper to be social, because you can just invite people over.
My point being that the greater loss in society is an imagination of what kinds of social structures can exist. Very few people even consider communal living a possibility, or what kind of form that can take (you don’t have to find four friends to purchase a home with, that’s just one way to go about it). Living with roommates is common enough because of necessity, but actually sharing costs outside of rent/utilities is difficult. I’ve tried to get my current roommates on board with something simple like food sharing and that’s impossible. There’s a level of vulnerability and loss of convenience that’s very scary for many.
Been seeing lots of studies on the subject pop up and at least for millennials and younger finances were a major reason for isolating. Work a ton and broke isn’t a good environment to build relationships.
I don’t buy this alone as the reason. At the surface level it makes sense, it costs money to socialize outside of the home by going to a coffee shop or bar or what not. But on a deeper level it doesn’t hold up, because when times get tough financially, a great way to reduce costs is to collectivize expenses.
For example, I know two different groups of friends that are living together as households and sharing costs of living in a way that meaningfully reduces the cost of living. One group has twelve people living in a quadplex. They share groceries, home costs etc. The other is 5 people living in a single family home doing a similar setup. Significantly cheaper than renting a 1 bed or studio apartment and living alone or with 1 or 2 roommates. The other benefit, you feel less alone because you are building a life with many other people. Not just the people you live with, but it also gets easier to invite people to your home because you well… have a home that’s inviting and welcoming. Makes it cheaper to be social, because you can just invite people over.
My point being that the greater loss in society is an imagination of what kinds of social structures can exist. Very few people even consider communal living a possibility, or what kind of form that can take (you don’t have to find four friends to purchase a home with, that’s just one way to go about it). Living with roommates is common enough because of necessity, but actually sharing costs outside of rent/utilities is difficult. I’ve tried to get my current roommates on board with something simple like food sharing and that’s impossible. There’s a level of vulnerability and loss of convenience that’s very scary for many.