

Always Talk to Strangers - tokenadult
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/social-cohesion-heart-attack-prevention/378694/?single_page=true

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bluewolf
The game Rejection Therapy[1] has lots of challenges for interacting with
strangers, like _ask a stranger to have your photo taken with them_ and _sit
beside a stranger, strike up a conversation_ and so on.

They sound easy to do, but I found out they are anything but.

[1] [http://rejectiontherapy.com](http://rejectiontherapy.com)

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michael_h
Sounds good.

Step 0: overcome social anxiety and general awkwardness.

Edit: to make this comment a little less pithy, I will say that I've ordered
'What to Talk About', and it has lessened the looming daemon of small
talk...somewhat. ([http://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-Cocktail-
Elevator/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-Cocktail-
Elevator/dp/1452114501/))

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graeme
ahmadss, your reply to this is dead.

Mods, why was the comment about rejection therapy killed? It's a very popular
and highly relevant game. And the poster has 1000+ karma; they don't seem like
a spammer.

I couldn't see anything objectionable about the comment.

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kelukelugames
I'm new to hacker news and have not figure out this "dead" feature. What
exactly is happening?

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graeme
"dead" means a mod killed a link, comment or even an entire account. You can
go to your profile settings and select "showdead" to see dead posts.

At it's best, "dead" indicates spam removal, or a shadowban of a spammer.
Unfortunately, when it's applied in appropriately, the poster doesn't realize.

In this case, there's a comment that I think was removed incorrectly.

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ankitshah
[http://teawithstrangers.com](http://teawithstrangers.com) might be relevant
;)

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pavel_lishin
Reminds me of a similar project that was called 'lunch-hat' or something that
I can't find now. The premise was similar, you find some strangers near you to
have lunch with.

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dominotw
grubwithus.com seems to have closed down now.

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l33tbro
Yet another article trending on Hacker News about loneliness, social anxiety,
and community. Man, we really must be a bunch of introverted shut-ins!

Machines sure can be funner than humans, but the ammount of trending articles
around this theme reveals a few uncomfortable truths about this community.
Yikes!

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superuser2
Shaming us for it is not helpful.

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l33tbro
May be projecting there ... no shame intended.

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jollyGiraffe
There should be a community to help us lurkers stop lurking.

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Mz
Excerpt:

 _" There's evidence suggesting that negative factors of the neighborhood,
things like density of fast food outlets, violence, noise, and poor air
quality impact health,” lead researcher Eric Kim, a psychologist in his final
year of doctoral work at the University of Michigan, told me. I'd add broken
windows. One 2003 study found that “boarded-up housing” predicts high rates of
gonorrhea in a neighborhood, as well as premature death due to cancer or
complications of diabetes. (And murder.) More recently, researchers from
University of Pennsylvania looked at the health detriments associated with
vacant land. By their understanding, abandoned buildings lead to isolation and
erosion of social relationships, mutual trust, and collective efficacy, which
leads to poor physical health.

Kim’s team is focusing on the other side of things: the positive elements of a
neighborhood that “might perhaps be protective or even enhancing of health."
For a young scientist, Kim is precociously well versed in the language of
hedging_

So, what gives? I am baffled as to why this is not being discussed in earnest
as a piece on research into health factors but is being talked about like it
is a criticism of the social climate of HN and the social skills of its
members.

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NickWarner775
not only is it healthier but the networking can be very useful.

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dallen33
Hello, strangers.

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fferen
Hello, dallen33!

