How's your social health? Let's test it. | Dr. Chelsea Shields | TEDxSaltLakeCity

We've all heard of physical and mental health, but another important aspect to our overall health and wellbeing is social health. In fact, recently in the United States, the surgeon general revealed that social isolation and loneliness just topped obesity to claim second place as one of the top three killers in America.

Humans are highly social creatures, but that doesn't always mean that our social interactions are healthy. In this informative talk, Dr. Chelsea Shields, explains how our emotions can easily be high-jacked and then offers guidance on how to evaluate and level up our social health.

This presentation was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with only a limited live audience of cast and crew members. While applause has been added to the beginning and end of the video, all other aspects have intentionally remained as filmed to honor the struggle and loss experienced globally during 2020.

Wardrobe furnished by Tommaso Cardullo. Dr. Chelsea Shields is a bio-social anthropologist, placebo studies expert, and runs a local consulting business.

In her academic work, Dr. Shields focuses on the evolution and elicitation of the placebo effect outside medical contexts. She coined the concept of social susceptibility to talk about how and why our human bodies have evolved to react, adjust, and adapt to specific social rituals, relationships and communities. Her work also investigates the evolutionary mismatch of modern human hyper-sociality and the health implications of a global, digital, 24/7 social network.

In her professional work, Shields runs a research and strategy business that specializes in qualitative, quantitative, and ethnographic research as well as creative ideation, branding, and user-experience design.

[jingyi]

May everyone be blessed with healthy and positive friendships and relationships ❤️❤️

[mmm-ekcm]

Is it also by accident that I am an introvert and I hate babies? And guess what, I am super healthy. I live alone with my pet iguana and I couldnt be happier. I wake up, take a walk in the forest, have a nice breakfast and work in a job I love. You dont need others to be happy. Being alone and lonely isnt the same thing so this speech doesnt really apply to everyone.

[elisenesousa]

this is so necessary, even more now in this pandemic time. we care so much about practical methods to take care of ourselves and we don't pay attention to the simple and important things, like human interaction. thank you!

[unarchubat]

Thank you for bringing a scientific lens to what I have felt as important. Your message and insights are timely at these unprecedented times of lockdowns and quarantines. The dimension of social health isn’t something that I had recognized, but now I am aware. I will be checking in on my and my loved ones’ social health. Thank you for an enlightening talk.

[heizitombstone]

true
i have problems with social space, those are feeling unneeded and some more awful emotions. i knew that our behavior is going from our social networks but i never knew how to find good friends. and it's pretty difficult for me to stay in touch in the internet, i literally prefer real life. i live in a big city but as for me i live in a city of the same ghosts.

i wish everyone who felt or feels all that find the way out. it's possible, the most important thing is to keep going on. and one more advice is to be ready that your best friend will be gone one day. i don't mean only death, humans' personalities are changeable.

be(come) happy, unknown friends

[jlvandat]

Message to the thousands of people who watched this, took "the test", failed miserably and uttered to themself, "I am dead": I am with you! Living alone, with circumstances and a personality that makes it challenging/impossible to have close friends or even regular social interactions. I wasn't always this way, but over the years close fiends died or moved away and were not replaced, so here I am. I have a game plan to improve my social interaction but in the meantime, he's what I do to try and mitigate the negative health effects caused by social #1 is meditation. I use 2 different types, solo and guided. Both seems to help a lot. The guided meditation is probably more valuable since the voice of another human, speaking the right words in helpful ways calms the soul and helps me feel a bit more connected. Both forms of meditation provide stress relief which is important and IMO one of the major negative side effects of social isolation. My guess is that someday the science will tell us that it was the stress associated with minimal social interaction that caused multiple health issues. I think just being around people works great for stress reduction, unless they're a bunch of jerks of course. #2 is exercise. There's some hormones released during exercise that IMO produce benefits similar to social interaction. This is totally anecdotal, not scientific. I just feel better after exercise in the same way I feel better after a few hours with family or friends. Okay, I'm done. Be your own best friend....if you're alone a lot and think it's harmful, do stuff similar to what I suggest and also make an effort to reach out and connect. This is what a good friend would suggest!

[leloc]

Wow! a mazing presentation. From her voice to her skill and her knowledge is so attractive and meanful. Thanks Dr a lots

[irinaphoenix]

Reliability isn't the same as friendship.

[soufianeammou]

Everybody loves being surrounded by people. Even the introverts،، like me!! But in our case we just love to be around the right ones, and that's what i realize this days, so I started giving random people a chance and try to know them before i decide to ignore them anyway

[punnaroothsrimongkolsilp]

Wowww, thank you so much ขอบพระคุณครับ :)

[jaitoony]

Just the way joey says.. The giving loving sharing lol

[amandas]

I wonder how this is impacted by being an introvert vs extrovert and those that struggle with toxic independence.

[coolmister]

Wow I’m in the red. This explains a lot for me.

[vasiwasi]

that set looks sweet. i agree social health is important, but digital socializing is a poor replacement. the challenge is how do we make new social connections in a "distant" world? IDK maybe its not so distant, try waving.

[jackthelizard]

Great speech! Deserved more views imo.

[morter]

I feel like she’s going to scold me afterwards

[avgor]

Sensible. But seems like extroverts and introverts might be having different experiences with this.

[secretlyashark]

wow I thought this video would have more views

[retomosimann]

So you need 6 good friends to be safe. Very questionable. I think 2 really close ones suffice surely.

[fearthequiet]

It looks like I will never be in the green zone :')