The Ledger
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Norena Hertz: AI companions risk conditioning humans to expect submissive friendships
“Moreover, the danger is that we'll get very used to having relationships with essentially servants who do what we want and laugh at our jokes and are much more submissive than any human relationship would be. So whilst I do see it as a cure for loneliness at a…”
Hertz: AI companions risk conditioning humans to expect submissive relationships
“Moreover, the danger is that we'll get very used to having relationships with essentially servants who do what we want and laugh at our jokes and are much more submissive than any human relationship would be.”
Hertz: Loneliness Directly Drives the Rise of Political Populism
“Loneliness and populism that my research has kind of made really clear. Populism, whether on the right or on the left, in increasing numbers, people are seeking, feeling lonely, feeling marginalized, feeling disconnected from each other, but also from the gove…”
Hertz: UK shopping malls deploy high-frequency sound devices to repel youth
“There's even cases in shopping malls in the United Kingdom, where in order to keep out undesirable youths they emit a very high sonic pitch sound, which only young people can hear a very unpleasant sound.”
Norena Hertz: Quitting Facebook for two months significantly reduces loneliness
“And there was a landmark study that was carried out by Stanford University about a year and a half ago, a real gold standard of a study where they had 3000 participants 1500 in a control group, and the other 1500 were expressly charged to go off, in this case,…”
Hertz: Three in five young adults feel lonely often or always
“Three in five, 18 to 34 year olds, feel lonely often or always.”
Hertz: One in five millennials has zero friends
“One in five millennials Don't have a single friend.”
Hertz: Stanford study showed deactivating Facebook reduces loneliness and increases socializing
“And there was a landmark study that was carried out by Stanford University about a year and a half ago, a real gold standard of a study where they had 3000 participants, 1500 in a control group, and the other 1500 were expressly charged to go off, in this case…”
Hertz: Optimistic that social robots and virtual assistants can alleviate loneliness
“I'm actually quite optimistic about the role that social robots and virtual assistants will be able to play in alleviating loneliness”
Hertz: Neoliberal capitalism and individualism are fundamentally inimical to community connection
“It does, even though the more individualistic society is Is the lonelier it's likely to be. And also I argue that the neoliberal capitalist mindset, so the dog eat dog me first, self-interest first mindset is also inimicable, ultimately, to a world in which we…”
Hertz: Lonely people are 30% more likely to die prematurely
“That's why loneliness, it turns out, is if you're lonely, 30% more likely to die prematurely than if you're not”
Hertz: Loneliness under two years significantly raises early death risk
“What's worrying is that even relatively short periods of loneliness, so even periods of loneliness under two years, Researchers have found can significantly increase your likelihood of an early death.”
Hertz: Some shopping malls use acne-revealing lighting to discourage teenagers
“They also put special lights in the bathrooms of these malls, which expose teenage acne, so that young people won't want to spend time there.”
Hertz: Open-plan offices cause workers to withdraw and use email more
“Surprisingly, open plan offices actually make people really socially withdraw, maybe not that surprisingly, so panopticon so noisy, people tend to withdraw, communicate more on email.”
Norena Hertz: A turned-off smartphone on a table reduces interpersonal empathy
“There was a study which, where they put a smartphone on a table between a couple, even when the smartphone was turned off, even when neither person was touching the smartphone, the couple felt less empathetic towards each other and less connected”
Hertz: Loneliness extends beyond personal ties to workplace and civic disconnection
“There's probably nothing more lonely than being in a bad relationship or a bad marriage. Being lonely Has a sense of powerlessness attached to it. It's a sense you lack agency. It's about wanting to feel connected. Typically we think of loneliness as being wan…”
Hertz: A turned-off smartphone between a couple measurably reduces empathy
“There was a study which, where they put a smartphone on a table between a couple, Even when the smartphone was turned off, even when neither person was touching the smartphone, the couple felt less empathetic towards each other, and less connected”
Hertz: Studies show pop lyrics became increasingly individualistic since the 1980s
“So there were studies done with pop song lyrics, which show that in general, in the west, pop song lyrics from the 19 eighties to today have become increasingly individualistic with words like we, us, and I are supplanted by words like I, me, and my, and this …”
Hertz: Video call latency prevents the neural synchronization needed for empathy
“The jerkiness of our Zoom calls and the, you know, which just kind of doesn't help us, our brains be able to synchronize with each other, which
They need to do in order to feel empathetic and connected.”
Hertz: Zoom interface prevents real eye contact and makes interactions performative
“We don't look at each other when we're on Zoom, typically. Right. You know, our eye lines aren't looking at each other because of the way it's set up, and in fact, all too often we're distracted by the pictures of ourselves on our screen, turning our interacti…”
Hertz: Loneliness is rising because participation in civic institutions has dropped
“Part of the reason, of course, we're lonelier today than we were in the past is just that we do less with each other, less than we did before, so we do go to church less. We are less likely to be members of a trade union. We go less to parent-teacher associati…”
Hertz: Research shows people who do not help others die earlier
“Research has shown that people who never do anything for others Die earlier than people who do help others”
Hertz: 40% of office workers experience workplace loneliness
“40% of office workers feel lonely at work.”
Hertz: One in five US adults has no friends at work
“One in five adults in the US say that they don't have a single Friend at work.”
Hertz: Digital social lives hide childhood exclusion from adults
“Whereas in the past, an adult in a child's life could typically see this was going on. So you would see your child wasn't being invited out with others. So a teacher would see a child not being asked to sit with others at school today because so much of their …”
Norena Hertz: Pop lyrics since the 1980s increasingly substitute 'I' for 'we'
“So there were studies done with pop song lyrics which show that in general in the West, pop song lyrics from the 19 eighties to today have become increasingly individualistic with words like we, us, and our, supplanted by words like I, me, and my.”