Why all any of us want is human contact

Human-contactMost of us rarely give our daily relationships with friends, work colleagues and close family a second thought. We’ll share a joke, make each other a cup of tea or have a hug without considering the deep emotional impact it has on us.

Fortunately, for many of us the lack of any of these relationships won’t ever really be felt but when they disappear they can have a marked impact.

I’ve been volunteering at my local Age UK in Brighton for a few months now, teaching people computer skills on a drop-in basis. As someone who’s fairly tech-savvy, I’m usually able to answer most questions posed, be it email problems, finding specific information online or tweaking settings on an iPad.

But the truth of it is, the ‘computer problems’ aren’t the real reason people drop in on a regular basis. What the older people are really there for is the social element.
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Lolz. We don’t like change, do we?

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Thousands of new words have been added to the new Scrabble dictionary and their inclusion has predictably caused consternation among many fans.

The arrival of LOLZ, DENCH, WUZ and SHIZZLE to name but four has drawn howls of protest from some – which, to my mind, is simultaneously inevitable and baffling.

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Why we need to be more inclusive than ever in our daily life

After a General Election the one thing you can guarantee is knee-jerk reaction and hysterical responses by supporters of whichever parties lost.

And so we have seen following the surprise Conservative victory in the 2015 General Election.

None more so than the assertion by philosopher Rebecca Roache that Labour supporters should unfriend any Tory friends on social media.

Quite aside from the sweeping generalisations about people who support the Conservative party, Ms Roache’s suggestion will only serve to cement the problem that existed on social throughout the whole election campaign: namely that we surround ourselves with people who think the same as we do.

The shock to many (in which I include myself) on Friday was that we couldn’t believe anyone could vote any differently to us.

And here is where we fall into Nigel Farage’s oft-quoted ‘liberal metropolitan elite’. We don’t hear the opposing voices, or at least we dismiss them.

What we all – no matter of your political leaning – need to do is to spend more time listening to each other and understanding our concerns, hopes and fears.

We need to debate and discuss and talk through what each other thinks. Let’s actively seek out those with differing views.

Each of us may not manage to persuade the other to change opinions, but at least we’ll be less surprised by the outcome.