Face-To-Face Contact Makes Us Healthier

"If we don’t interact regularly with people face-to-face, the odds are we won’t live as long, remember information as well, or be as happy as we could have been.... Research shows that playing cards once a week or meeting friends every Wednesday night at Starbucks adds as many years to our lives as taking beta blockers or quitting a pack-a-day smoking habit... And while intimate face-to-face contact is protective—girding our cardiovascular and immunological systems and even raising our lifetime IQ levels—loneliness has the opposite effect."

~ Susan Pinker, The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter