I can see how this increases your wellbeing.
But what about your neighbor's? Maybe so as well, unless you are that weird neighbor people talk about when they are not around.
And let's be honest. You are that weird neighbor.
Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
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Re: Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
#12"greeting neighbors is also linked to career wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and financial wellbeing"
Correlation. Happy people are happy. That's not cynical: you can improve your happiness by working on all of those fronts.
Re: Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
#13In our last house we knew 90% of the people on our street and regularly interacted with them. We have been in our new house for just over 2 years and only know our neighbors on one side of our house. The neighbor in the other house moved in just a week after we did. In those 2 years we have seen him only once, they day he moved in when he pulled up in his car, got out (without looking our way), opened the garage door, drove in, and closed the door. We literally have not seen him a single time since. The only way we know anyone still lives there is the garbage cans going out and coming back in each week (though, nobody has ever seen him putting out or retrieving his cans). Anyway, it’s hard to get to know a neighbor who doesn’t seem to exist.
In our previous house, we lived about halfway down a dead end street, so anyone from one end walking by would come past our house. Also, there was a neighborhood garden which brought people together. In our new house, there is no community gathering space and we leave in a culdesac at the end of a road. The result is we don’t get to know our neighbors.
Re: Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
#14Just to toss this out there: the reverse is also true. We get along well with all of our neighbors except one. We say "hi" and invite each other over regularly.
That one bad neighbor is a real problem, and a huge source of stress and unhappiness.
Re: Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
#15I yelled at one yesterday for looking at their phone while driving, does that count?!
Only if you do it routinely, and your well-being feels maximized
Re: Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
#16Where does anyone live that they even see their neighbors to greet? Not here in the suburbs.
I mean isn't a suburb one of those HOA neighborhoods with houses every 1/4 acre? Seems ripe for neighbor communication. This seems like a cop out.
In the US most people in suburbs only ever walk from their door to their car (which is itself often inside the garage) and then they sit in their steel and glass box to the minimal possible distance from their desk, then do the reverse on the way home.
Re: Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
#17Where does anyone live that they even see their neighbors to greet? Not here in the suburbs.
In a midwest neighborhood of modest houses built in the 1920's inhabited by families with children. Just one example.
Re: Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
#18Original Study (with pretty charts!): https://news.gallup.com/poll/509543/saying-hello-linked-high... Interesting, "No meaningful increase in wellbeing is seen for additional neighbors greeted beyond six."
It sounds more to do with correlation vs causation people who are more likely to greet others could have a variety of different factors in their lives making them feel less isolated. One of them unironically states that it helps with the Career Wellbeing of an individual which is indicative that it doesn't really do that.
Re: Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
#19Where does anyone live that they even see their neighbors to greet? Not here in the suburbs.
I live in the suburbs but these are homes built in the 1950s and a lot of my neighbors are older. My neighbor and I have ¾ acre backyards that are just divided by a chain link fence. We both have dogs and like to do yard work. He's retired and I work from home. We talk across the fence a few times a week. He'll put surplus items from his vegetable garden on our fence, give our dog treats, and I'll exchange with bread I've baked. We shoot the shit about everything - his childhood growing up in the neighborhood, health, things going on, projects we might want to tackle together...
It's definitely possible with the right neighbor, you just have to be intentional and friendly.
Re: Mister Rogers had a point – routinely greeting six neighbors maximizes wellbeing
#20Good morning my Hacker News digital neighbors, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night.