Could you live without your
family and friends? Would you feel relieved to have no one to share memories
with, or would you feel lonely and depressed? I know I would feel depressed if
I had no human interaction. I would probably go insane.
It is proven that humans need social
interaction to survive. Have you heard of the German Emperor, Frederick II
(1194 – 1250)? He was known for doing experiments on humans. One of his
experiments was with infants. He took infants from their mothers and raised them
without human interaction. His objective was to find out what language the
infants would speak once they were old enough to speak, but instead all of the
infants died because there was no human interaction.
Why does social relationships matter? We form
relationships because we need that human interaction. We need-to-belong. Need-to-belong is a hypothesis that
says each of us is born with a fundamental drive to seek, form, maintain, and
protect strong social relationships. With these relationships, it brings us
rewards three rewards.
1) Emotionally:
Friends provide us with emotional support and
encouragement during times of emotional turmoil. Friends also bring us
happiness.
2) Materially:
Relationships help us meet our material needs
like food, shelter, money, and transportation. Humans love to share with others
that they feel close with.
3) Medically:
Relationships bring happiness and relaxation, which helps to deal
with negative effects of stress, and helps us to deal with illnesses. Stress as
we all know has many negative effects on the body such as sleep deprivation,
unhealthy weight gain, and decrease in white cell counts.
I
for one do need human interaction and relationships. I know without my family,
friends, and my loving boyfriend I would be depressed and lonely. During my
first year of college, I didn’t have any friends, and my family was a few hours
away. So I had no one, which caused me to have depression and loneliness. I became unhealthy; was getting sick quite a bit, and felt sluggish. When I moved
back home, I became healthier, and full of energy because of that human
interaction. Family and friends took the stress off of my back with laughter.
Did you know that laughter gives you dopamine and endorphins? Health benefit
right there!
Here’s
a good link to read about “touch” and human interactions:
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