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Friendship in the Age of Loneliness
An Optimist's Guide to Connection
Description
*NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB SUMMER 2021 NOMINEE*
After a year of social distancing and lockdown measures during the pandemic, it’s more clear than ever that our friendships and social bonds are vital to our health and happiness. This refreshing, positive guide helps you take care of your people and form deep connections in the digital age
Research has shown that people with close friends are happier, healthier, and live longer than people who lack strong social bonds. But why—when we are seemingly more connected than ever before—can it feel so difficult to keep those bonds alive and well? Why do we spend only four percent of our time with friends?
In this warm, inspiring guide, Adam “Smiley” Poswolsky proposes a new solution for the mounting pressures of modern life: focus on your friendships. Smiley offers practical habits and playful reminders on how to create meaningful connections, make new friends, and deepen relationships. He’ll help you develop a healthier relationship with technology, but he’ll also encourage you to prioritize real-world experiences, send snail mail, and engage in self-reflective exercises.
Written in short, digestible, action-oriented sections, this book reminds us that nurturing old and new friendships is a ritual, a necessity, and one of the most worthwhile things we can do in life.
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Praise
“Smiley is a friendship visionary, snatching friendship out of the once-a-month-happy-hour box we tend to place it in and teaching us how to pump our friendships with fresh life. At our core we are social, but technology has alienated us from our roots. Smiley brings us back home.”
—Dr. Marisa Franco, psychologist and friendship expert
“Follow Smiley’s advice in this book and make sure your time is time well spent with the people you love most.”
—Tristan Harris, co-founder and president, Center for Humane Technology
“Vulnerable and inspiring, this book will bring more creativity, play, and wonder into your social life.”
—Amber Rae, author of Choose Wonder Over Worry
“With loneliness looming as one of the greatest public health concerns of our era, Adam Smiley Poswolsky has written an antidote that is right on time. Long a trusted voice of millennials, Smiley is back with a gorgeous paean to friendship that beckons us to re-engage our forgotten instincts. Actionable, deeply inclusive, tender, and wise, Friendship in the Age of Loneliness demonstrates why meaningful engagement with other humans is essential and how, exactly, to make it happen.”
—Julie Lythcott-Haims, New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult, Real American, and Your Turn
“Years of evidence-based research has shown us that the surest path to health, happiness, and a long life is to invest in your relationships. This gem of a book will show you how. You should read Smiley’s book and then call an old friend you haven’t spoken to in a long time.”
—Dhru Purohit, CEO of Dr. Hyman Enterprises, host of the Broken Brain podcast
“A powerful book about the importance of friendships, belonging, and human connection that helps us infuse every relationship with more meaning and purpose. We need Friendship in the Age of Loneliness now more than ever."
—Cassidy Blackwell, director of international communications at Airbnb
“A practical guide to fostering human connection and true friendship in an increasingly lonely, isolated, digital world.”
—Dan Schawbel, Washington Post bestselling author of Back to Human and New York Times bestselling author of Promote Yourself
“Smiley’s writing is authentic, heart-centered, and powerful. A must-read for HR leaders, company culture pioneers, and anyone who cares about their people. Simply put, this book is exactly what the world needs right now.”
—Claude Silver, chief heart officer at VaynerMedia
“Friendship in the Age of Loneliness is an essential call to find belonging—with yourself, with your friends, with your co-workers, and in your communities. We all need this book.”
—David Spinks, cofounder of CMX and author of The Business of Belonging