
U.K. Appoints a Minister for Loneliness - aacook
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/world/europe/uk-britain-loneliness.html
======
aacook
I stumbled on this article while hanging with my 94-year-old Grandparents
today. It popped up on their new Amazon Echo Show and my Grandpa pointed at
it, wondering what a "minister of loneliness" was all about while enjoying a
5-Guys burger and chocolate shake I picked up on the way to his house.

I've been studying at the problem of elderly loneliness and loneliness in
general (I WFH). A little over a year ago when my Grandpa stopped driving at
age 93 I started making more of an effort to hang with him. I noticed that in
the beginning his memory wasn't as I remembering it being 10 years before
that. But over the months as we started getting together more consistently it
was as if we'd gone back in time. His memory is astonishing, better than most
of my friends in their 30s. He remembers everything I tell him and is always
checking in on whatever life problems I share with him. Ok, well maybe he's my
Grandpa and just cares more about the little details of my life than most of
my friends! :) Even so, getting together with him on a regular basis
definitely had a profound impact on his mind and mobility. And on me too.

Tech can be useful for combatting loneliness. Nothing beats in-person
interaction but products like Amazon Show can help fight loneliness. I blogged
a bit more about my experience with it so far here:
[http://blog.nanagram.co/echo-show-unboxing](http://blog.nanagram.co/echo-
show-unboxing). I've also been experimenting with a product in this space,
[https://nanagram.co](https://nanagram.co), and it brings me a ton of joy to
hear about how it brings families closer together. Reddit put forth an awesome
idea to allow strangers to "adopt" grandparents
([https://www.reddit.com/r/shutupandtakemymoney/comments/7fg6q...](https://www.reddit.com/r/shutupandtakemymoney/comments/7fg6q3/nanagram_text_message_your_photos_and_well_mail))
which the product, which I love in theory and still need to figure out in
practice.

~~~
marojejian
Shameless plug: I'm building a platform for online (video +chat) support
groups (campfire.care), to provide peer support for folks with any life
challenge.

Any feedback welcome!

------
ralusek
Inspired, no doubt, by Eleanor Rigby.

------
krutzger
And some place in Europe just created a Ministry of Truth (to combat take
news)

------
jeabo
They should save money and merge it with the Ministry of Silly Walks.

------
yakitori
There are 3 nytimes article on the frontpage already. 2 of which are
questionable HN type of articles. Do we need a 4th?

Who keeps bumping nytimes articles to the frontpage?

~~~
grzm
NYTimes, like the WAPost and WSJ, is a major publisher. It's not surprising
that there would be a number of NYT submissions at a time.

There are clear guidelines on how to express which submissions you think are
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