Meaningful Social Interactions can Keep Loneliness at Bay
A healthy social life with more meaningful interactions can make you feel less lonely, reveals a new study.
To conduct the study, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science (), the researchers followed three cohorts of university students over three years, collecting data on their social interactions and momentary well-being.
‘Spending more time in deep and more meaningful conversations with peers could be the magic pill to get rid of loneliness. #Loneliness #SocialInteractions #HealthySocialLife’
How to Stop Feeling Lonely?
"Our research indicates that engaging in meaningful social interactions has net positive outcomes for affective well-being, stress, and loneliness," said lead author Mahnaz Roshanaei, of Stanford University."Spending more time in substantive and deep conversations with anyone with either strong or weak ties, results in benefits for the average person's well-being outcomes," she added.
Fight Loneliness with Meaningful Social Interactions
The study found greater benefits for well-being when meaningful social interactions happened in person (or face-to-face), compared to other communication channels like direct messaging and texting. Meaningful social interactions while resting resulted in higher well-being than those occurring during activities such as studying or dining.The researchers acknowledged that their study had limitations, including the fact that it focused on university students and may not be generalizable to the general population or outside of the US.
"In the future, the results of this study can be used in designing personalized intervention-oriented strategies for encouraging healthy social lives, such as personalized recommendations for maintaining social support and connections," said Roshanaei.
Reference:
- Meaningful Peer Social Interactions and Momentary Well-Being in Context - (https:journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19485506241248271)