
New Evidence for the Necessity of Loneliness - jonbaer
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160510-loneliness-center-in-the-brain/
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baron816
I really wish more startups focused on ending loneliness. It has to be the
worst problem afflicting advanced countries, but it's all but ignored for
fancy hi-tech stuff and anything that will make you're life slightly more
convenient.

I've started Krewe
([https://www.gokrewe.com/get_started](https://www.gokrewe.com/get_started))
to help people make a group of friends in their neighborhood and build a
strong local community, but I think there should be other companies who's
focus is on fostering real personal interaction.

~~~
sametmax
Loneliness is not a technical problem, a startup will not solve anything.

Evolving as a society will sove this, and for a society to evolve, its parts
must evolve.

So the first step to end loneliness is to work on yourself.

~~~
feelix
Recently I've found myself a bit lonely at times due to changing circumstances
and a lack of being introduced to other people that would like some more
friends.

I have gone to a few meetups. Which is a technology based product. It has
helped me meet people and end loneliness.

This has nothing to do with the evolution of society, as you put it.

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sridca
> _the pain of being alone motivates us to seek the safety of companionship,_

Yes.

> _which in turn benefits the species by encouraging group cooperation and
> protection._

Yet, a fear-driven cooperation and protection is bollocks compared to a
spirited one (as illustrated by the French expressions _bien dans ma peau_ and
_joie de vivre_ ).

~~~
curiousgal
Another French expression to go along would be Sartre's "Hell is other
people". Which is the reason I choose to distance myself from people.

~~~
sridca
Withdrawal is a common reaction to stress (loneliness). However a reaction is
not necessarily a solution.

~~~
cauterized
For an introvert, aloneness does not necessarily imply loneliness. Introverts
can be lonely too - but we often need to be alone. Knowing there are specific
people out there who will want to spend time with you again when you're ready
to engage can be enough to stave off loneliness for an extreme introvert even
through very long periods of aloneness.

~~~
sridca
While I’m wary of what people who categorize themselves as “introverts” claim,
my comment above was about social withdrawal as a _response_ to loneliness;
and further about how a response (reaction) to stress is not necessarily a
solution.

------
dschiptsov
Why, we are social animals, whose kids and elders can't survive alone. No
surprise that there is appropriate machinery in the brain, or rather that
machinery gives rise to what we call empathy, parental care, altruism, family
and in-group bonds, etc.

Apart from that, other people are constant source of problems, distraction,
annoyance, due to their narcissistic tendencies to assert themselves, to show
off, to gain attention, to validate their inflated self-esteem, their
extremely annoying primitive and rude attempts to manipulate, use, cheat, take
advantage of others, etc. Truly "Hell is other people".

Moreover, they tend to validate everyone according to their artificial, biased
socially constructed "norms", which leads to hegemony of mediocrity and much
uglier things, like hunweibins and similar cancer-like social formations.

So, the balance is subtle - as long as we are dependent of each other for
survival, which reflects each and every clan or tribal societies, we are OK.
But since we have forsed to live in too much crowded, overpopulated, highly
competitive urban areas of post-infustrialized societies, everything is
doomed. The only thing Marx got right is alienation.)

Back to loneliness. Loneliness is a prerequisite for any intellectual or
spiritual (which is an ancient word of intelligence) achievement. Less other
people - less worries, less distractions, tension, noise, pressure, cruelty,
violence. That's why everywhere in the world monasteries has walls and no
academics work in Starbucks.

Loneliness should be understood as necessity, like privacy and embraced.
Unless you are a brick in the wall, a living cell, a soldier or a drone.

------
dominotw
I might be reading this wrong but their evidence seems like its not consistent
and they explain this away with this speculation.

"Neurons are somehow tapping into that subjective social experience of the
mouse, and only producing a significant effect on the behavior of mice who
perhaps previously valued their social connections, rather than those who did
not"

So what exactly is the proof ?

They also explain that this might lead to two possibilities social vs
antisocial mice . How did they even come up with these possibilities surely
from their own experience and understanding of the world.So they are starting
on with hypothesis that they came up with and end up with inconsistent results
and claim that as proof.

tl;dr

hypothesis1: loneliness corresponds to dopamine -> not conclusive ->
hypothesis2: results explained by social position of mouse -> further testing
needed

