Showing results for "Our Help" in Social Psychology & Interactions

From the creator of the wildly popular blog Wait but Why, a fun and fascinating deep dive into what the hell is going on in our strange, unprecedented modern times.

After decades of affluence, we’re busy renovating our homes, buffing and botoxing our bodies and losing ourselves in passive entertainment and shopping, as depression and anxiety soar. And with the arrival of Netflix and Uber Eats, there’s less and less incentive to leave home. Could our constant need for connection be messing with our brains? Is this why we’re losing our ability to strike up a conversation with anyone we don’t know? And given that so many of our kids lack one-on-one attention and regular touch, are we raising this new generation to be profoundly lonely?

The unprecedented access to other humans that technology provides has ironically freed us from engaging with them. According to social psychologist Adam Waytz, our increasingly human-free lives come with a serious cost that we’ve already begun to pay: the loss of our humanity. Humans have superpowers. More than any other psychological stimulus, our presence can make experiences feel significant, inspire moral behavior, and encourage action. The Power of Human shows us how to rehumanize and harness these unique abilities to improve our lives, beginning with our jobs.

In a world where everything seems to transform in a blink, anyone can suddenly find themselves scrambling for human connection. Someone who has always found it easy to connect can suddenly feel disoriented if they start a new job, move to a new region, or welcome a new member into the family. Others may have always found it difficult to connect, feel they've outgrown their circles, or may feel dissatisfied for a range of other reasons. In Our New Social Life, social connection and happiness experts Natalie Kerr and Jaime Kurtz explain the science behind these struggles.