THE VILLAGE EFFECT

How social interactions affect our longevity more than any other factor, including exercise and healthy weight.  Face to face interactions that is, close, personal contact. 

​Online doesn’t count. ​

​Social Interactions
 
Susan Pinker’s book The Village Effect delves into the lives of the centinarians in a small village in Sarinia, where she attributes the close personal interactions of the villagers to the fact that there is an above average number of centinarians. 
 
She showed a graph where she attributes these close personal interactions as being a key factor in longevity, above quitting smoking, exercise and weight.  She said that genes account for 25% of the variance in longevity, and lifestyle accounts for 75%.  According to Pinker, women live longer than men because they are more likely to prioritize close, in-person friendships. 
 
She urged people to “build your village, it’s actually a matter of life and death.”

​Face to face vs online
 
In a recent Ted Talk she showed how different parts of your brain light up only with face to face interactions, online interactions or watching videos did not engage your brain in the same way. ​

As we watch our kids play more and more video games, and spend more and more time on social media, it reminds us how important it is to encourage them to build strong personal contacts and spend time with them face to face, not looking at them on a screen or reading their posts. 
 
This video goes into more details; it’s long, but well worth the watch; Pinker explores the impact of face to face contact in the classroom, workplace, and our marriages.  ​

​​Change nothing and nothing will change; without change, there can be no progress!