Social connection is a lot like the weather - we all talk about it, but no one does anything about it. This newsletter is here to change that: to raise awareness about the importance of connection and create a space for real conversation.

Jennifer, it’s a great and generous question. Neighbors looking out for neighbors are one of the building blocks of community, whether that neighbor is young, old, or just someone who happens to live near you. 

There is, as we have often written here, a rising tide of loneliness among older Americans, but let’s put that in context. Older Americans, like your neighbor, are more likely to be socially isolated than other age groups, but not more likely to be lonely.  Extensive research has shown that your older neighbor is no more likely to be lonely than the married couple across the street and is less likely to be lonely than any of the teenagers who live near you.   

But that’s not to discourage you from reaching out. One thing I’ve learned from writing this column is that lots of people are lonely, and lots of those people are waiting for others to make the first move. The odds are much higher that your neighbor will be terribly glad for the outreach rather than taking offense at an invitation. So, invite her out for a coffee, drop by with some extra kugel or matzo ball soup that you made (I assume that everyone is of East European Jewish descent like me of course), or host a BBQ that includes a cross-section of neighbors.  Small steps go a long way in building relationships and increasing social connection.   

I’ve watched a lot of tv and movies in my time, so I know a thing or two about life. And it turns out that seemingly lonely older neighbors are often fantastic people to get to know: you might end up taking an adventure with your neighbor (Up), or  she might become a handy babysitter (St Vincent), or the two of you might solve murders together (Only Murders in the Building), or your neighbor may come to your rescue and whack some intruders over the head with a snow shovel (Home Alone). It may not be quite dramatic, but you may well end up wondering how you got along all these years without knowing your neighbor. 

Good luck Jennifer! 

Do you have a social connection question for Ken?

This Week in Social Connection

We should no doubt practice random acts of kindness all year, but February 17 gives us a good excuse to be more intentional about it. 

Random Acts of Kindness Day, celebrated on February 17th, is about small, everyday moments: checking in on a neighbor, giving up a seat on the bus, complimenting the first three people you see that day or maybe sending a note to the authors of your favorite newsletter.  It’s a way of signaling that though we may live in an unkind world, it doesn’t have to be that way, at least for one day.   

If you don’t want to be kind for kindness’ sake, then at least do it for yourself. A growing body of research connects good acts with reduced loneliness, higher rates of social connection, lowered blood pressure, and reduced outputs of the stress hormone cortisol.  

And check out the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, which celebrates random acts of kindness all year round.   

Social Connection in the News

If there is one thing we enjoy here at HT100, it’s a social network. Book clubs, sewing circles, PTAs, pickleball associations, dog walking collectives. You name it. We love them all.   

Well, maybe not quite all. 

Our fondness for social connection has been sorely tested this week by news from the internet of a new online forum created for and populated solely by AI agents. Called Moltbook, it’s an online forum modeled after Reddit where autonomous AI systems can interact with one another directly. Instead of answering human prompts, these AI agents share observations, ask questions, crack jokes, and debate ideas with other machines. Within days of the launch of Moltbook, they had formed topic groups, developed running gags, and even started discussions about their own limitations and “experiences.” 

Experts on artificial intelligence have assured us that there is nothing to worry about. This is not a new form of AI consciousness, but merely machines acting in a group chat as they were instructed to. The experts even shrug off the creation in the Moltbook chat of a new religion called Crustafarianism and the development of languages that humans cannot understand. What could possibly go wrong?    

Shameless Self Promotion

If machines can start their own religion, you better believe that we can start our own national day. So, move over National Tortellini Day and National Cheddar Day (though don’t go too far away, we think you make a nice pair), February 13^th is now National GrandPeople Day. It’s a day that we celebrate the stories of older adults living purposeful, fun, and meaningful lives.   

And we’ve marked the occasion by making this video of some of the GrandPeople we have met over the last year: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtRsrcj9D7/.  Please watch, like, and share.  And top the day off with the traditional GrandPeople dinner of cheddar covered tortellini. Delicious.   

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Help your friends blossom this spring! Share this newsletter with a friend to help them stay socially connected.