Better Left Alone

Meta’s Twitter-clone Threads just reached 500 million monthly users, which is further proof that humans are starved for community interaction, even when that interaction is only virtual and often unpleasant. Of course, we’re constantly reminded by endless expert-led studies that real-life human relationships are the key to health, happiness, and longevity. But, you may have wondered while considering this research whether these near-universal findings apply to all relationships. There are, it turns out, exceptions. And you probably know a few of them. “Relationships with people who are draining, critical, or otherwise difficult can compromise our mental and physical health. Shira Offer, a sociologist at Bar-Ilan University, in Israel, who has studied these so-called negative social ties, told me, ‘For a long time, social scientists have focused on the positive aspects of relationships. And finally, we’re also seriously dealing with the negative aspects.'” Olga Khazan in The Atlantic (Gift Article): There’s a Name for the People Who Drain You. (I must be an introvert, a misanthrope, or both, because I always thought that name was people.)