00:01Increasingly more people are experiencing loneliness in the UK.
00:06But despite this, a recent study showed that more than half of people would rather pocket cash than spend time with their friends when given the choice.
00:16I wanted to get my head around this, so I spoke to one of the experts.
00:20This is the Oddfellows research, so basically you could have a choice of £100 cash or spend some time with family and friends, and more than half of British people now are opting for the cash.
00:33So a facepalm from me, as a doctor of happiness, it's not great.
00:38That means one of two things, mate.
00:40Either the cost of living crisis has really got us by the short and curlies and we're desperate for money, but I think it points to something a bit deeper than that I'd like to explore with you.
00:49And that is that maybe we've reached this point in sort of human evolution where we've actually got our priorities wrong, got skewed, our values are skewed towards materialism and away from people.
01:00And as somebody, basically, I have spent 20 years researching a subject called positive psychology, which turns psychology on its head.
01:07So psychology traditionally has been about phobias, illness, depression, and what we call a disease model, looking at what's wrong with people.
01:16Whereas what I did at Loughborough University was flip it on its head and look at what's right with people.
01:20So who are the happy people?
01:22What are they doing that allows them to flourish?
01:23And what can we then learn from them that we could apply to ourselves so we might also have a spring in our step?
01:28And why that pertains really well to the research that we've just been talking about is that actually the number one thing, if you do what's called meta-analysis, which is analysis of all the analysis on happiness, then the number one thing that will bring you more happiness and is good for your well-being is actually strong, close personal relationships.
01:47Why do you think it is that, you know, making or maintaining friends has become so much harder, especially for adults?
01:53Yeah, a little bit of a pandemic.
01:54I don't want to blame the pandemic or social media for everything, but I think there is a role to play there.
01:58And it's not just the older generation, although loneliness is killing people, like literally people are dying of loneliness now.
02:04So, which is ironic, isn't it, when we're like so hyper-connected on social media and yet people are lonely and it isn't just the older generation, fella, it's teenagers now.
02:14I do loads of work in schools where teenagers are struggling to communicate with each other and make eye contact and they will sit with each other in silence on their phones.
02:23So are you being present in your presence or are you being absent is quite a big, a big question.
02:28And really what the odd fellows is, is a call to action, is say yes to human connection.
02:34If you had a message for people who do still believe that happiness is more about money in the bank than people in their lives, what is it you'd like to say to them?
02:43Well, let me give you some research from the University of London.
02:46So it's a bit off the top of my head.
02:47It might not be exactly right, but they did some research that tried to equate, they tried to put a monetary value on things that haven't got a monetary value.
02:56So, for example, friendship, well, they said that if you've got those tight, close personal relationships of 12 people, that's worth something like £64,000 worth of happiness to you every year.
03:08Neighbours is a good one.
03:09Neighbours, if you've got nice neighbours, then that's worth something like £37,000 worth of happiness to you every year.
03:15So my call to action for everybody watching this is really to be that friend and be that neighbour.
03:20We don't have to wait for somebody else to be nice to us.
03:22We can make the connection.
03:23We can step first and make the human connection so important in a world that feels disconnected right now.
Comments