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.
Anybody who wants to get mad about this, look up the sociology concept of third place.
Here’s a great ~10 minute video from Not Just Bikes on YouTube about third places and how current city planing trends promote social isolation.
This concept and this video are so fantastic. Goes to show how broken N America is, I’ve been around the block a few times and never really had a chance to stop at a local…