A mountain of research has linked loneliness to an increased risk of dementia, depression, anxiety, heart disease, stroke and early death.
Loneliness is officially a health emergency in California’s San Mateo County, which is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and includes part of Silicon Valley.
The county’s Board of Supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday that declared loneliness a public health crisis and pledged to explore measures that promote social connection in the community.
It’s the first county in the U.S. to make such a declaration.
I’d argue the death of small businesses by large faceless corporations with no ties to the local communities has done more to kill local communities than church attendance.
Used to be your neighbors ran the stores you went to. You knew your money was helping your friends and staying with your community. You could have a little pride knowing your participating in your local community.
Now the small shops downtown are all gone and all that’s left are the big box store chains. And those big stores don’t invest in the community. They take everything they can and give it to their shareholders.
We need to break up everything.