The Importance of Social Connections
Hello and welcome back to everyone - four legged and two legged all,
After a restorative break, Caroline are truly delighted to be back with you to offer suggestions that we hope will allow you and your dog to enjoy ever more fulfilling lives.
Our time apart from you brought home the importance of social connections, so we thought it appropriate to focus on relationships in our first month back. In this piece I’ll look at the differences between online connections and face-to-face encounters.
Since lockdowns—when online connections kept many of us from being overwhelmed by feelings of isolation and loneliness—we’ve been able once again to enjoy the ‘real’ company of others. For many, however, the habits formed during lockdown have remained. Now, instead of the 60-40 pre-Pandemic split in socialising online vs face to face, many continue to favour online connections.
Does this matter?
In terms of social and psychological wellbeing, yes, it does.
When we meet up, we take in a rich supply of non-verbal information about the other person. We’re aware of some of these non-verbal cues online, but nowhere near as many as when we’re actually in the presence of the other person. Without being particularly aware of what’s happening, we feel more easily confident that we’re ‘reading’ our companion accurately; that we know how they’re feeling and that we’re responding appropriately to what they’re telling us. During face to face encounters we’re also more easily able to anticipate the other person’s intentions—something we call ‘street smarts’. This is harder to work out online, and can lead to you causing offense unintentionally. (It’s even more difficult to understand true intention when we communicate by email or text, by the way.)
Another thing we miss in online communications, but enjoy when encountering others when we’re out and about, is a sense of belonging. When we meet other dog walkers we’re reminded that we’re part of a group of people who love and value animals. When we wait at the school gate for our child after school we connect with other parents. When we’re in the office our sense of being part of a professional group is highlighted. In other words, these more casual encounters reinforce our sense of self, filling in and highlighting the many facets of our identity.
Now more than ever before, online connections have an important place in our lives and make it easy to stay connected with people all over the world. But face to face connections are much deeper and richer than virtual ones, and do far more to strengthen and clarify who we are and to give meaning to everything we do.
So why not contact a friend today and arrange to go out for a dog walk together?
Until next time, warmest wishes,
Linda