There's a YC company solving for this, Papa.com
Hopefully they're solving for better social connection, not solving for chronic loneliness as so many other for-profit ventures have...
Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
141–150 of 173 posts
Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
To some of us weirdos, it actually matters whether things we repeatedly stand up and declare or sing about are true, and whether the stories we draw meaning from are factually correct, and whether values we repeatedly and publicly affiliate ourselves with are good. And, among this admittedly weird fragment of the population, those of us who think the things churchgoers affirm and derive meaning from and value are tru…
Have you ever given a Christmas gift to someone? Or do you abstain because it requires a belief in flying reindeer?
I've given many Christmas gifts. None of them required anyone to believe in flying reindeer, Turkish bishops living at the north pole, frosty winds and frozen water in a place that never gets below 10degC or so, etc. All it requires is a tradition of exchanging gifts at that time of the year.
If giving gifts at Christmas required me to declare solemnly that I was doing it in the name of the incarnate Son of God and that the presents under the tree had actually been delivered by flying reindeer, then I wouldn't do it; I'd find some other way of being nice to the people I love that didn't require me to lie.
So, anyway, perhaps your point is that I could find a church that doesn't expect me to actually believe, or say, or sing, any of the usual churchy things, and then I could go there every week. I suppose I could. But I think all those things Christians believe are somewhat load-bearing for Christianity and suspect that going to church every week while remaining an atheist wouldn't actually get me most of the benefits that regular churchgoing is alleged to give the people who do it.
Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't even have to be medical emergencies that go unnoticed. There are other declining health metrics that an independent observer might notice that a person is not aware of or is unwilling to confront. If there's no one to say "you might want to get that checked out", you probably won't get that checked out! No mistake, almost all of us can refer to an anecdote of an elderly relative dying soon after their spou…
There’s another side where the people you’re around downplay any sort of medical concern you have and actually discourage getting help. So I guess you have: bad company < no company < good company
That's only the case if you're unaware you're in bad company! I've known a few people that were excellent weathervanes as long as you were aware there were going to always be wrong by 180 degrees.
Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
#144OP was accused of posting AI-generated articles previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45368911
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Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
A liability for having tea with elderly citizens?
> A liability for having tea with elderly citizens? In their homes? It's a mountain of liability. The elderly tend to be a combination of paranoid and senile. The first time they misplace a checkbook or forget some valuable was already given to some grandchild they'll accuse the most recent new guest in memory of stealing. And that's just one of an infinite number of possibilities having spent zero time dwelling on i…
no wonder they are all lonely those pesky old folks!
Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
#146I haven't dug into all the sources, but I think there's a potential confounder here, or maybe even reverse causality. The author seems to assume causation when the studies only indicate correlation. E.g. the first link says "chronic loneliness increases mortality risk" but the actual source says "actual and perceived social isolation are both associated with increased risk for early mortality". So for example, it's p…
Another huge factor is probably lack of feedback loop. Its surprisingly easy to press on by yourself through various health issues until its too late. However someone around you might say you look pale recently you should see doctor as an obviously contrived example.
Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. Many of the statistically more dangerous things are either chronic issues (obesity) or inherently in public (driving). Choking, a heart attack, etc are acute issues happening in private, which is where the fear lies. Some of those acute issues could be made more likely by the chronic issue, but not always. And if the chronic issues are known, a person can proactively get tests to hopefully avoid an acute iss…
I had a mildly embarrassing shower fall that ended in a deep wound. I tried to sleep it off not realizing how bad it was and ended up having to get surgery. Because of the location of the injury, there was a big risk of infection. I was alone, but luckily I was only 19 and healthy at the time. But I came away with a new understanding of the dangers of these things and whys there’s so much advertising to older people…
Glad you were able to make it out ok. That’s another thing I think about often. I will often double back to grab my phone before I do something knowingly risky, like climbing on something. I don’t want to test how hard my survival instinct kicks in to find other means to get to help if left in a bad spot.
I’m thankful my dad is into tech and has an Apple Watch. He does a lot of walking, watch is good to keep him mobile. But just last year he stepped backward off a curb and fell in a parking lot. The Apple Watch went off and was ready to call for an ambulance had he needed it.
20 years ago he was worried about falls with his mom, he was thinking of solutions for this and wanted to make a device the seniors would need to check-in with every hour. A missed check-in would trigger a call to emergency contacts. The various monitors on the watch seem much more elegant and less annoying, while being a step up from Life Alert.
However, with the Apple Watch needing a smart phone, charging, and general know-how, I don’t see it as a viable general purpose safeguard for seniors. At least not for a while longer. I don’t think my would get a smart watch for fall detection, and she’s made some comments that worry me. I think she’s fallen several times and hasn’t really told anyone.
Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
#148This is why doctors should recommend drinking and smoking. At a certain point the risk of premature death is greater from being a shut-in than it is from indulging in a pint and a ciggie with some buddies every once in a while.
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Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The author seems to assume causation when the studies only indicate correlation. once I heard Feynmann say in a youtube video that (paraphrasal) "we don't know what causes gravity, we just know that it exists, it's a property of matter" then I realized, our experiments never show causation, they only show correlation. gravity has 100% (in our experience) correlation to matter. admittedly, that's a pretty good corre…
Skipping punctuation makes your writing harder to parse. It's a false economy.
i didn't skip any punctuation
Re: Meta-analysis of 2.2M people: Loneliness increases mortality risk by 32%
#150This is just fake science, which invents a mystical force that makes people healthy when they interact with other people.
The causality is reversed. Unhealthy people socialize less, this explains every correlation result cited, it is a simple explanation, which doesn't need to invent some mystic force which turns people healthy, when they talk to other people.
Unless there is incredibly strong evidence that the reversed causation is wrong, no other explanation should be accepted over it.