Humans have historically been social animals, and the need for bonding still exists in the modern world. Even though social bonds may seem less important than in the past, living in isolation has a negative impact on survival, and they will be essential in the future.
Humans are social animals. This was stated by Aristotle, and it means that we cannot exist without society, and that even if we exist as individuals, we have no meaning in and of ourselves, but only in relation to others. In the past, humans were also social animals. Despite the lack of language, humans worked together to hunt wild boars, and farming could not be completed alone, so people joined forces. In addition, humans lived in large groups, and relationships between people were constant.
But what about humans in the modern world? Are we still social animals? Yuval Harari’s book Homo sapiens states that
“The basic lesson that evolutionary psychology has taught us is that social needs formed in the wild are still felt subjectively, even if they are no longer necessary for survival and reproduction.”
In other words, humans no longer have an essential need to maintain social ties, but the needs that were formed in the past are still felt. The question here is not whether we need them or not, but whether they are essential in the modern world.
First, let’s look back at the current situation. In the past, social networks were essential for survival, and if they were broken, it was difficult to survive. Today, however, there are many jobs that allow you to survive on your own. There is no longer a need to maintain ties with neighbors, and individuals are responsible for their own lives. The same goes for reproduction. In the past, men and women had to meet and produce offspring to keep the species alive, but now we can reproduce without meeting each other through methods such as test-tube babies, as well as emotionless marriages.
Does this mean that social bonds are no longer necessary? My answer to this is no. Sure, it may feel like social ties are less important than in the past. It’s true that nuclear families have become more common, people are more mobile, and there are more things that individuals can accomplish on their own, but social ties still exist in other forms. What’s the evidence?
To find out, I decided to explore the real impact of social ties in modern life. First, I conducted a survey to see how long people could live without interacting with others. I created a questionnaire that divided the items into hours within a day and then into days, and posted it on Google. As a result, 170 people participated, and the majority of them said that it would be impossible for them to live without social ties for more than a week. In particular, 90 people said they could survive for three to four days. This goes a long way toward refuting the “social ties are no longer necessary in the modern world” argument.
However, since the survey was based on people who had never been isolated, it was necessary to conduct a complementary study to see if they could actually survive in an isolated situation. I turned to a survey and paper, “Social Ties and Life Satisfaction among Urban Elderly,” which looked at older adults living alone with little social interaction. In this study, I created variables for family ties and friend ties, and found that higher levels of both ties tended to be associated with higher levels of life satisfaction.
However, they didn’t have a clear answer to the question of whether people give up on survival in the absence of ties. We examined the association between suicide rates and lack of social ties in urban seniors, and found that lack of social ties increases suicide rates and decreases survival rates, even if not in the extreme way of suicide. This again suggests that a lack of social bonds is a threat to human survival.
Of course, there are those who refute the need for social bonds. There are certainly people who are disillusioned with relationships or prefer to be alone. However, it’s important to keep in mind that these people don’t have the experience of living in complete isolation for long periods of time. Also, while some people don’t feel the need for social ties, others are constantly rethinking their importance. For example, the fact that books about conversation make up a significant portion of the bestseller lists is a testament to the need for these bonds.
While there are those who downplay the importance of social bonds, there are still many who insist on their necessity, so we can’t say that they have disappeared.
We might think that the lack of emotion means the absence of bonds, but what about the future? It is true that social bonds are still necessary in the modern world, but their importance is decreasing. So, will social bonds be respected in the future?
My answer to this question is “yes, social bonds will still be needed”. In the future, many humans will be replaced by machines, and knowledge will be networked. However, this will only emphasize the importance of ties in order to achieve higher levels of progress, because progress within a field can only go so far, but new levels of progress are possible when different fields converge and work together. If social ties are lacking in this process, true progress will be difficult.
