Why Now Is the Time to Discover ‘Social Discovery’

July is annually the month of Social Wellness. Let’s not pretend this is as well-known as other national months and days that are celebrated around the world. But it should be. Social wellness month is about encouraging people to ensure that they keep their social connections and support at the forefront of their mind. Everything’s better when you have friends, families and even acquaintances to go through life with. It’s so important to have people who can lend you support, but equally it’s important to be able to be the one who lends help. We feel more connected, we feel more valued and we simply feel better.

Social wellness was an idea first talked about in 1905 by Dr. Joseph Pratt. He saw it in the extreme case of those suffering from tuberculosis. His patients were grouped together and able to give each other support through the illness. That connection was evidently invaluable to the patients and cited by them directly as a huge help. It puts a name and label to something we all know to be intuitively true: Life’s better with friends.

Since then lots of research has shown the huge benefits strong social wellness has on people’s lives. They live longer for a start. Heart and blood pressure respond better to stress and it even boost your immune system.

So this July, this Social Wellness Month, there is no better time to discover the power of social discovery and friend finding platforms. It’s a modern world, and we need modern solutions. Apps can cut through the noise and help people find exactly what, and ultimately who, they are looking for. Particularly in adult life, it can be hard to make friends out in the ‘physical’ world. I very deliberately avoided saying ‘make friends naturally’ or ‘make friends in the real world’ in that last sentence. That would imply friends made online are not natural or real. That is a stigma that belongs in the past. 

Social wellness is so important, it’s time we started prioritising it, the way we do dating, or exercise. So, here is to many more Social Wellness months. Let’s make sure next July, it’s not as obscure as it unfortunately seems to be now.