I'm really surprised by how negative the comments are on this one. I mentor a young man once a week and it has been a huge positive influence on me and my mental health. It really helps me be more "others centered".
It's a sign of how people are on the Internet. I did more than 1000 hours of volunteering in high school and it's made me who I am today. Now I run a startup that uses AI to automatically create real-world social events between friends: research shows the best solution to loneliness is seeing people in person more often and volunteering is certainly one of the best ways.
Yeah, getting out and volunteering at a local animal shelter changed my life in numerous ways. I cringe at people my age who still live self-centered ladder climbing lives, always trying to optimize whatever metric, because I used to be that idiot too.
Do you mean negative comments about the article (and its advocacy of volunteering), or negative reactions to the first comment here on HN, which brought church into the discussion?
EDIT to add: hm, further down there are some quite negative comments (some rather silly), maybe you meant those.
Yeah, I wasn't really commenting on the religious discussion. More on the dismissal of the positives of volunteering. To each their own I guess. I am certainly no expert, but I can't help but feel that a lot of mental health struggles could be improved by spending more time focusing on improving someone else's life rather than looking inward too much. It is certainly only one piece of the puzzle though.
This is absolutely true, at least for general frustration/negativity. Playing a positive role for others is a huge help.
I don’t want to downplay depression or imply it’s a cure for that, but certainly my own struggles with same have been lessened when I was an active volunteer.
You don’t have to be a “better person” to volunteer; volunteering helps you become a better person.
