Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of work and writing and practicing my one little word appreciate. It has been a good week. It has turned artic here in the Midwest and I haven’t spent much time outside. I’ve hunkered down and gone into hibernation mode for the winter.
Photo credit: blavandmaster on Visualhunt
But enough about that, today I want to talk about loneliness. According to experts, loneliness or isolation is as bad for us as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. They go on to say that loneliness leads to increased stress and the risk of depression as well as a greater susceptibility to high blood pressure and poor health.
The risk of isolation has increased with many people working from home and young people taking online classes. That’s why we need third spaces more than ever according to sociologists. What are third spaces? I’m glad you asked.
Third spaces are places of community. It could be a church, or a local café, or even someone’s front porch. Studies show that people live longer when they have a third space to go to receive human connection.
When I think of a third space, I think of a community center. A place where people can congregate daily to chat or play cards. When a community center comes to mind, I think of retired people who’ve lost friends and loved ones, but what about our young people? They need a place to go and hang out, too. A community center where they can get together and commiserate with people their own age.
I believe a community center for young people would alleviate some of the isolation that many deal with today. This could lead to deeper feelings of connection which could lower the rate of teen suicides and school shootings.
I think we’re on to something.
Wouldn’t that be great if each town or burg had a community center for young people to go and hang out? I wonder how we’d get something like this started? Any ideas? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!
