the from the ravages of globalization and golden don't to styled itself as an empties to stomach policy, coming to replace an old and a self serving political order messages and patriotism, national identity and honest dealing resonate in europe these days. and polls show, cuz if you have these commands 3 percent of the vote enough to make a triumphant return to parliament jumpstart, hopeless, i'll just a athens the . this is on to 0. these are the top stories for me. you as president, donald trump, is facing several charges in connection with the mishandling of classified documents. you asked me to say the indictment, interest, spinners, obstruction, and conspiracy. and now they're doing it again. it's just a continuation 7 years. even have to run out. but it's called the election interferes. they've tried to destroy a reputation, so they can when election,

that's just as bad as doing any of the other things that have been done over the last number of years and especially during the 2020 election. so i just want to show you, i'm an innocent man. i did nothing wrong and we'll fight this out just like we've been fighting for 7 years. russia says ukrainian voices are suffering heavy losses in the region of this operation that says, ukraine's president's blowing me was that lensky is praising his troops for what he calls results and heavy fighting near done, yet images taken from the international space station. so the scale of the wildfires burning in canada, large parts of the country on the us are blanket and smoke advisor, boned to $3800000.00 hectares, the investigators and finds and find to establish a motive for a nicer site that injured for children and 2 adults and thursday, it happened in the town of out of senior the borders with switzerland memorials, the side of the park where the children would attract. this attack is

a city and refugee president did not. even my car was due to visit this in the coming hours. china, it says as economy has stalled in may, the latest days have released on friday shows we can in consumer demand, which in turn has slowed manufacturing, sit on the spot administrating, says the united nations, and boy is not welcome in the country. administrate issued a statement early on friday, declaring vocal passes percent out in person and not dropped on general of the fact that all behind has accused the un envoy of causing division among the bible forces . and you remember states have reached a deal to share responsibility for asylum seekers and migrants more evenly. it follows a day of negotiations between interior ministers and lots of agreement names to ins, pressure on it's an increase for many monuments in refugees arrive after crossing the mediterranean. don't forget to website. i'll just leave a dot com. the stream is not next. i'm rolled matheson stay with us from

boston law, a will along with, with neither side, willing to negotiate because the ukraine war becoming a forever war is america's global leadership, increasingly fragile. what will us politics look like? as we had to the presidential election of 2024 critical could us pull that to the bottom line. the . so today i want to talk about something millions of people can relate to and that is the i have no friends trends. i'm 2016 years old, and i don't have any friends issues. we all look tribe a good so tara, so either way they also would it be more likely to or maybe i'm just going to be alone. i thought to myself, hey, you know, like when you get to this age, you just don't have friends anymore. and it's kind of

a hard realization to come to, but it just seem normal. no one wants to go online to mix the rest of the well that they have new friends. it's kind of embarrassing and to be honest, is something i've heard a lot of shame. i but it's something that i've tried to hide in my real life. that's just a sample of what some people on social media are confessing to that they have no friends. hi and welcome to the stream where we are old friends. and i'm heidi joe castro. today, the loneliness crisis, technology has allow people to connect in more ways than ever, but loneliness is on the rise. will look at why public health experts believe the problem has reached epidemic levels. well, that's a talk about loneliness in the us state of utah. julian, hold on stat, professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the social connection and health lab at brigham young university in the state of washington. lucy of my,

he's weinberg director of the university of washington international adolescent connection and technology laboratory. and in london, kerry hobson, founder and director of the neighborly lab. and since we're talking about human connections today, here is your chance to connect with us. please jump into our youtube chat with your questions and your thoughts. guest, thank you so much for joining us for this important discussion. i want to start with you, harry. the loneliness we just saw displayed on those social media clips. is that hype is that just something more people are talking about, or is this a real problem? a hi id. um it's a better face. it's it's, it's a very real thing. i'm based in london according to size here, about 8 percent of london population as about 700000 people say that that always officer lady. so that's about 700000 people. just in the city. wow. so it's a big real settings to be able to do that. there's no doubts about that. um

certainly uh the way it's been expressed by the young people we just saw on that cuz it shows that you actually said people speaking not much more about sets of people. are they much more open and frank about it, which i'm sure is a good thing. yeah, that's certainly the 1st step. you talked about the u. k. in the us, there is specific evidence of loneliness as a pandemic. julianne you are the lead scientific editor of a recently published us surgeon general advisory, which i have here on my computer. it's titled our epidemic of loneliness and isolation. and further down it says that lacking social connection is as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes. a day and if and if, and if found that poor social connections is linked to real health outcomes like heart disease, stroke the, the risk of developing dementia. julian, just how serious are these warnings?

yeah, so you know, when we take both the trends of significant portions of population that are lacking, connection in, in one way or, or even multiple ways along with the serious kinds of health consequences and the implications for public health are tremendous. um, i'll just give you an example of loneliness increases risk for earlier death by 26 percent. so social isolation by 29 percent living alone by 32 percent. but the good news is that those who are more socially connected have an increase of the survival by 50 percent. and so what we know is that humans are our social beings. we're, we're, this is thought to be a fundamental human need to connect. and so it's not surprising that when we

lack this connection that have significant impacts on, on our body, our physiology, that ultimately lead to some of these poor health outcomes. yeah. we'll see a, the pandemic, of course, aggravated this. can you tell me what that impact was? there's only am i focus, especially in young people, other lessons between the ages of 10 now to 2425. and unfortunately, what many of us have felt during that time they make is rebuilding the bait. the we're seeing increases in only mazda increases in levels of social connectedness and social, so forth and young people, as i. and we are also saying social media as the best thing to do, a lifeline that allowed us to stay connected in a, in the face of the lack of in person interactions, the closure of schools. mm hm. so that's gonna be a problem that we were seeing before the make that has definitely been confounded

and that's sure to gather all for our attention. yeah, i'm glad you brought up young people, but adults 2 are experiencing those. and we also have some numbers to support that . on my computer, i have a report from forbes health that found 59 percent of us adults find it harder to form relationships since colvin and when asked, what are you most nervous about when socializing? well, the, the, the most number of people 29 percent said not knowing what to say or how to interact. then. is it a simplification to say that this pandemic basically helped us, or allowed us to forget how to socialize a hi. um hi. uh i do. yes. i got a couple of great things um, discussed about this one to um have a quick thoughts about kind of from my point of view, kind of what learning this is like. um it's cuz i think i compete. you welcome this,

this amazing reports. i'm massaging general. how about equally, i think it's important enough to kind of try is that, you know, so i think it is an old re, everyday parts of life for all of us at different times in our lives. and i just think it's this thing particularly for the young or for the old. i think it's any of us can become somebody like me. and it's particularly a times of change or transition or disjunction, when, when life becomes very difficult, really starting to a and especially what you don't have with people around you. so you're used to having to support you. so that can be people to big changes going on in their lives . people have moving to a new place and it's particularly for people who a certain go or live alone, who, who are particularly kind of susceptible to savannah. that would be nice. thank you . so i just think it's kind of important to realize it's not about it. we used to think of it as i said, and especially for older people will recently just got some attention on younger people that but actually i think it's best about age and more about like stuck and stuff so that well well, be able to think about that and well, just jump in, um i,

i couldn't agree more. um, you know, as i mentioned, that social connection is a fundamental human need. and so it's part of the human experience. and you know it's, it's much like hunger and thirst and, and know it's, it's biological drive to help us motivate us, to reconnect socially, to meet this biological need. and so it's perfectly natural and part of the human experience to feel loneliness from time to time. but when people get stuck in it and it, because persistent and severe over time is when we often and feel or see some of these severe kinds of effects. but i'm jumping back to, to the video and, and what you just mentioned. i also recently fos, of data that showed that google searches on, on how to make friends are at

a 20 year high. wow. wow. and so it, you know, it, i think it really shows that not only are people you know hungry, so to speak, to connect, but are also feeling like maybe they don't have the adequate tools in order to do so. yeah, lucy, i wanted to have you talk a little bit too about your research in latin america because we certainly don't want to make it seem like this. loneliness problem is just the global north. but in fact, gal of research did as an estimate, that in 2021 if found more than 300000000 people globally, don't have a single friend who see it. how have you seen that playing out in latin america? both serious and we. i think it is a global trend that we're seeing. i think there's differences in culture that might then for some of these effects like in america in general it tends to be more

collectivistic farming area. and that societies where i think there might be some protective factors that we're seeing play out. mm hm. and, and 11 thing that i do want to bring up is that in studying on the lessons of we in development talk about sensitive periods, right? so very early in life, it's a key sensitive therapy to learn, to speak a language, for example. and we now know that our lesson is a key sensitive period for learning how to build relationships have to foster them . so either worry about the fact of, of many children i listen, who left school for 3 years lived in america, for example, had in countries i work with all full 2 years over many of the education where kids have not been able to practice their skills. because their skills can be learned can be taught and should be practice. so it's not surprising to me that young people are asking online, how do i make friends that they're insuring thursday of how to now socialize and

interact? i think it's a concern that we are hearing from our undergraduate students as well coming back so. so that's gonna be very much thinking of how we can scaffold and support these skills and social emotional learning in young people and for everyone, right. it's a skill that we can all learn and practice. and it's interesting that these queries are being asked on google technology here. it has helped us and perhaps it has made us more lonely in some ways that as a point of debate among researchers. let's hear from susan mat, a history professor at webber state university. i run a place which technologies may actually make our loveliness words psychologist leticia and pep out of u. c. l. a. in the 1980 suggested that loneliness was the feeling when experienced when you have an expectation of so many friends and the reality of a fewer number. so it's the gap between how many you want to have and how many you

actually have. social media encourages police that you can have an incident number of friends, and it's that believe and that inability to ever rise up as high as we want, and the number of friends that may heighten our experience of loneliness. harry, i think there's a, uh, a tendency in social media to make us think that we need constant social affirmation that might not be such a good thing or no. yes. right. i think there's 2 reasons why social media kind of has this, the facts, if you will, then it's conceptual comparison, in other words, advising us to compare ourselves often and favourably with people. and the reason why god has had such a harsh effects on us, and especially perhaps that for teenagers is the status that is part is for 2 reasons. first of all, the stuff that people post on line is that you felt that obviously people, if you go into instagram, facebook, what you seem to see is everybody having a button in time everybody was that friends, everybody. the thing busy looking smiley. so that's bound to get people the sense

of kind of negative self perception by comparison. and then i think another reason is the times when we perhaps go too far down that road of social media or specific times movements in your day or your life. when you are on your right by state and perhaps a bit down or a bit like moods and feel particularly kind of susceptible to vulnerable to the effects about kind of hard to keep social comparison. yeah, so that's why um social media can help is kind of ready pernicious effects i think . yeah. and particularly on young people, go ahead and see me. and i think it's very important that we actually measure and know what people are doing on social media because i think we have for a long time just focus an hours in front of a screen, which is not a great correct. the revision of what we're doing online. so if i'm spending 30 minutes on a website goal with my very close friends, that is going to really build through our asses meaningful connections, right?

but if i'm just passively scrolling through instagram, for example, without interacting with friends, just comparing myself to others, then that is going to have negative impacts and loneliness. and that's exactly what we're finding in our own research, right? when we're measuring false anyone line experiences that actually associates with less loneliness compared to when we measure negative one line experiences which relates to higher levels of loneliness. yeah. it's certainly not that simple, right. so there are so many different types. go ahead, julian, i was just going to add because of course, you know, i fully agree that we need to pay attention to how time is used. but i also think we shouldn't entirely dismissive because many of these tools are designed specifically to keep our attention. um and, and, and so we have to think about, to what extent is this displacing other valued activities, including things like interacting with others in person. and so, um, uh, you know,

it becomes incredibly complex, of course. uh, but, but something we shouldn't neglect to consider. absolutely, and on that note, perhaps taking this to uh, further extreme, the role of artificial intelligence. i can artificial intelligence actually replace the void of no friends. i mean, it might seem like a silly question, but some people have, i tried to turn to a i, when they feel lonely. and for, and one example in japan, the sale of robot pets boomed during the pandemic. of course this was during the walk down and, and this help people i hear you. i mean they, they're very cute. uh the the list. yeah. me so but yeah, but i, i probably shouldn't be my only friend should it probably not know. um i, um, yeah, i mean it's, it's funny saying these robots and, um,

and some ways you can think of them is existing on a continuum through from dogs and companion animals that we've always had um, through to toys that we perhaps have in childhood as companions and these kind of things are almost more like toys i'd say to eyes 1st or some kind of mix it based on. yeah, i mean i'm, i'm, i think i, i'd be doing the best of all, let's just be completely care is no substitute for human interaction. so social connect to some is about interaction between people. yeah, i'm sorry i'm assume which isn't is not that is is, is something less so then good such as contact of course. yeah. but having said got, so you can see roads, right. i kind of helping people build that confidence helping people give a sense of belonging. perhaps i don't say perhaps most usefully letting people get help in a really quick and customize way. yeah. and the way the set top thoughts are ready, what went on websites and things like that. there's a good answer, really positive roads. yes, there is one example i wanted to bring up. it's from

a california based startup called replica. and this company has an app that lets you design your personal a friend. that's how it's marketed. let's watch this promo a video. so you're the person, you know, you create your avatar. um, but then of course, this is just a, a promo video. so this doesn't happen in the user's experience, but look they're, they're saying it's almost. d like having your real robot friends pop up next to you in your living room, doing yoga with you, etc. this video, of course, it's not what people experience, but when i went to this company's website under popular questions, one was, is a replica essentially. and i mean the fact that people are asking perhaps means that they are confused julia. and what is the danger in this as well? so our connections to others for feel a variety of, of needs and, and roles and goals. and so, you know,

we ought to be careful about thinking about what kinds of rules that, that a, i might do quite well. um and where it either mike falls short or even, you know, cause harm. and what are the things that we know can have a benefit in terms of, of our human connection? i, the, the, at least currently in the technology. we don't have a good substitute for is, is actual human touch. and not only is there a wide literature on the importance of human touch from you know, various narrow peptides to got micro biome. um, but you can just anecdotally, we can think about even during the pandemic, how much we craved to just be, you know, be able to hug someone. yeah. to be able to hold someone's hand. and you know,

as much as perhaps talking to others on, you know, on the some video chat, it was just a for substitute, you come out. and so those are some of the areas where we just aren't, it's not going to completely rep, replace human content. now, but it's a little bit better than nothing. and we have a lot of people saying that in our youtube chat, david brighton says i moved to a new city after the lock down and retired. i found a group of friends, a community on youtube, live streams. it's been nice and david, it's been nice to have you to, i'm glad you're joining this conversation. but it's that it's like what we're saying before, right? it's not just passively scrolling through things and ingesting content, but he and others are actually interacting in a part of a community. and i think that's why i wanted to say like the got guy david's on youtube. he's getting some of what he needs from, from his youtube friends, ideally as, as to the on site. it's, you know,

really keep in contact with tax included is, is, if you like, the kind of goes down to, that's what we'll need from craig. but we can get lots of what we need, remote need, 3 tac through conversations that we have on the comments on, on the phone or on. what's apple? oh, by 60 boston chat rooms. and by getting to know our neighbors through tech groups and so on. so there's no doubt that tech guys are really, really helpful road in helping us connect, but it's positive at ecosystem of house the connection. i did contact you at least then. yeah, we'll see what should we go ahead? oh, sorry. yeah. to, to jump in. kyra. completely agree. yeah. one of the interesting, my love right now is this idea of online only friendship. right. so it seems to me, but when i was growing up, when i was a teenager, i turned through the beginning of social media to foster relationships that i already had. but now more and more, we're documenting these online only friends, which might be young people living in a different city. people we might never meet online. so enters,

enters in our studies, for example, 3040 percent of early other lessons already told me i have a person, i have a friend of mine that i have never and will never meet in person. and we're trying to characterize these types of friendships as 1st of all burying rios for young people. mm hm. where of course it's very are and you beta. but of course, it's not those similar levels of closeness or trust, but a very important sources of shared interest, where young people can explore interest with people that they might not have locally. we think it might mean particularly important for marginalize youth who might not find community that locally. serena thing attention starting to scratch the surface to understand how these online on differentiates, might look like. i want to also talk about some offline solutions at a global health level. japan and the u. k. both created ministries of loneliness in 2021. harry, what does the,

what does the case administer of loneliness do and how is it helping? oh that's a tough one. i think in time. so i mean struggle. i knew this was the idea about some 201617 no one's quite sure. if we still got i don't know. some is he thought he just say some, i think our stuff happens. just say boston our government is out. yeah. but what about the what the, what have you? i was gonna say serious. i mean, city med stay keeps on is especially a matter of london on accident thinking hard about searching infrastructure. in other words, putting the stuff in place that it's um and tweaking the environments in which we live our lives to help us connect. and that's what we may be that david walk on, particularly um, but certainly governments and city tenants have a big role to play and making sure that we have the right kind of street. so right kind of housing, the right kind of parks, the right kind of public space is immunities um to help us connect. yeah, yeah,

definitely. i wanted to bring up one last uh, uh, example from the netherlands and there's a tweet about this on my laptop in which the dutch government created slow checkout lanes at a popular grocery chain. and this is for people who want to chat doesn't really care about getting out of there as efficiently as possible. think it at least a few minutes, a face to face time with someone who would like to chat back with them. and if the small things right, that do make a difference. and so in our final minutes of this show, i want to ask you guys for things that we and our viewers can do to personally help ourselves help our families and our friends who are experiencing this loneliness. so if each of you can just in one sentence, tell our viewers directly what is one action they can take to day to help themselves feel less lonely julia and go ahead. i guess in one sentence um that's gonna be tough, but um i would say reach out to others. we've found in research that

just even small acts of kindness can, can uh not only impact your own. loneliness reduce that loneliness but help you feel more connected to others and those in your community, reduce conflict and, and help others along the way. thank you julie ann. lucy, yes. very much. i know a lot of people are anxious about reconnecting socially, but it does get easier, the more you do it. so it just starts small. i hope they send that message that you wanted to send, you know, a friend ask someone a question on the street. it gets easier with practice. thank you. inherent your last sentence of advice. yeah. level, especially the kind of people do a new and that's a nice new time. those, particularly the cost for people to sit and go to the top. the people you've got about such items going on and i live close to the people that most likely to, to need your friendship. thank you guys so much. that is all great advice and for our viewers at home. thank you for watching today. if there's one thing you can do

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a restful soul, which you by august team has been for junction foot bowling legend. eric tented out introduces cloud, your temporary one of a special fuels that up for that believe whatever the cost for the gold rentals on our the, on the which your grains president and honestly is heavy fighting in the east after visiting areas flooded by the breach of a normal curve cut down the bible by this center. this is obviously a life and to have also coming up. donald trump is charged. the former us president is indicted in connection with this ongoing classified documents after he left.