Featured Session: Social Health Trends & Predictions: Connection is the New Frontier

Unknown Speaker 0:00 The OECD estimated that loneliness and a lack of regular interaction account for up to 871,000 premature deaths each year, people lacking strong family ties With great Unknown Speaker 0:32 that's what brings me to this idea of Unknown Speaker 0:40 it. So social health is the dimension of your overall health and well being that comes from connection. So if you think about physical health, is about our bodies, and mental health as about our minds, social health is about relationships. So the metaphor I've often used over the years is to think about your overall health and well being as a temple. And this social health pillar is absolutely essential. It's built up from human connection. And these three pillars, physical, mental and social, they're interconnected, right? So, if one is neat, the whole structure could collapse, but also can strengthen your social health. Unknown Speaker 1:29 Social Health pillar has just been missing from the conversation for far too long, and when I first came across this term in your research, almost 15 years ago, I can barely find anything about this. I've never heard of it before. Unknown Speaker 2:02 Take this a little bit more concrete, what does it look like to be social health? Well, social health includes regular interaction with a variety of people, including their loved ones. Social health improves close, satisfying relationships Family and friends, with people who Unknown Speaker 2:42 sometimes, thing all the time. So all of my fellow introverts in the audience just breathe aside. Really not going to tell you that you have to socialize all the time. Quality is more important. So that is a very quick explanation of social health, but I'm going to leave it there. I just wanted to get us on the same page. Unknown Speaker 3:26 Lesley Braden and talk about trends and breakthroughs. So I'm very excited to talk about this, because what I am also reviewing is that social health is a conflict of rats. It is moving from the margins to the mainstream, Unknown Speaker 3:43 and last year, I made some Unknown Speaker 3:45 pretty bold claims about this that I only have myself to blame for, and wired. I said 2025 were worth a turning point when people worldwide finally recognize that health is not only physical and mental, but also social. My TED Talk came out last year, and I said, over the next decade, I believe social health will become so ingrained in our collective consciousness, and right here on the south by stage, I said, 10 years from now, social health will become really woven into Unknown Speaker 4:25 is I also predicted sociologists today were mental health was 10 years ago, but not for much longer. Unknown Speaker 4:33 So the question is, am I crazy, maybe, or Unknown Speaker 4:39 are these old claims truly off track to come true. So there isn't just one kind of Unknown Speaker 5:00 return knowledge. So the first is Google searches, right? Google searches for social health around the world reached an all time high just recently. So this gives us a sense of people's interest in this topic around the club. Another example, this graph shows how often social health has appeared in millions of digitized books over time. There's a bit of a lag on this data, but again, even since last year, you can see that trend continues to build up. This graph shows scholarly works and academic Unknown Speaker 5:51 was an analysis of the research trends and also social media data about social health over the past years, showing what they call this online conversations. So these are pretty interesting signals, right? But I save the best for last. So remember this social health is the missing pillar. Well, in June last year, my colleagues at the World Health Organization published a landmark report declaring social health the missing pillar, and adopting Africa. This is a major global milestone for our blood to work, because it shows that social health is into physical and Unknown Speaker 6:47 mentalization of our work and our interest. But it doesn't stop there. Social Health was also declared one of the top political trends shaping industries Unknown Speaker 6:56 and culture in 2026 so that's according to the MLS. Unknown Speaker 7:02 This is the future, or the future 100 report, rather, which is an annual forecast based on a survey of over 15,000 people around the world and interviews with over 60 experts across sectors, said, and I quote, The next trillion dollar wellness economy is built on connection. They also said the question is whether social health will reshape industries, it's who will be leading the charge. So what this tells us is that, you know, we're shifting the language right? There's been so much buzz over recent years about loneliness as an epidemic, and I usually try to avoid that term, because it is debated in the research where there really is an epidemic. But regardless, right, we're seeing that there's not this shift underway in the language toward this power. Unknown Speaker 8:08 Get ahead of ourselves, we still have a long way to go. Most people still have not heard of social health, and if you compare searches for Unknown Speaker 8:25 look for social help on Wikipedia. There's no panic. So that's again, another thing. This isn't still foaming the industry, but that's actually really exciting. So this graph that you see here, it's called the law of diffusion of innovation. It's how new ideas, products and behaviors spread through a population over time. And what it shows is that you've got the innovators with any given new idea, innovators who champion it first. You've got the early adopters who are right on in there with it, adopting that idea or product, or whatever it is, and then then, which is this tipping point, and that's what orange arrow brings, where all of a sudden there's enough buzz and critical mass, there's enough social proof, so that Unknown Speaker 9:33 and those of us in the ceremony are Unknown Speaker 9:45 are the trends and kind of emerging milestones that have happened in the last year, but what about our social health, and what does the data actually tell us? So I want to nerd out with you some of this research. I'm gonna start with the bad and I'm gonna start with the US. So here in the US, the latest data from last year is showing that 20% sorry, 16% of Americans say they feel isolated or lonely all or most of the time. It's totally normal to feel lonely sometimes all or most of the time. That's really worse. We also see that 67% of US adults never participate in clubs and organizations. So earlier, when I said part of being supposed to stay healthy is belonging to groups and to communities, two thirds of people and 20% of Americans spend time in person. Here two times Unknown Speaker 11:07 Know That means I'm good, because from the last year table here in the US, you see that one in two adults say they hardly ever feel lonely. Pretty Unknown Speaker 11:21 good. 72% of Americans who feel a sense of belonging Unknown Speaker 11:25 in their community, Unknown Speaker 11:27 and we have 62% who feel satisfied with their relationships, with family, with friends, neighbors, with other connections. So there's both bad and good going on here in the US, but what about around the world? So globally, we see that one in six people stacked from the world called organization. But what really matters is how severe loneliness is and how chronic it is. That matters a little bit more. So that's why I find This statistically, five to 14% of Unknown Speaker 12:22 of the time is millions of people who have zero it's not all bad news. There's also good news. Around the world, 90% of people say they have so much. This one's interesting. So eight out of 10 is the average satisfaction people feel with their personal relationships. But it's on a scale from zero, not at all satisfied, to 10, completely satisfied. So people are generally satisfied with their relationships, and the last 160 Unknown Speaker 13:03 100% to feel like they have someone who does them and makes them feel and I think that's an unrealistic goal. We should be able to get to the point collectively where every single person Unknown Speaker 13:25 interesting science going on. So on the left here, you can see a graph of over the last 20 years in the US, the amount of time that people have spent attending or hosting these social events has declined a 50% on average. So here you can see the breakdown by age. And on the right, you can see that over the last 20 years worldwide, the percent of people who saw family and friends in person on a daily basis has declined as well. So we're spending less time together. We're socializing less often. Another fascinating example of this, this graph on the left is a little older. But I love it, because it's so tough. This shows the percentage of people who say they grew up having daily meals with their families, and you can see the silent generation. It starts out at 84% and then it gets lower and lower and lower with every generation, until we get to Gen Z, 38% of people having daily meals. Unknown Speaker 14:24 Behind why are Unknown Speaker 14:25 we not meeting with our families? Another example of this more recently, means that data saying that three and four restaurant owners are not living in a restaurant students are pretty low. So Unknown Speaker 14:42 here's social socializing less, but we want to socialize more. So this is fresh from February of this year. Google searches just reached all time highs for how to make friends, where to make people friend, the app, social clubs and community events people are searching for this. They're hungry for connection. And this also means that their social health pillars are not as strong as they could Unknown Speaker 15:14 be. And that brings me to needs and opportunities. Unknown Speaker 15:19 So last year, in 2025 I'm very grateful to have traveled to seven countries with clients and partners across industries, having conversations about social health, working to improve social health, from places like Japan to Brazil. So what I've done to kind of gather together these new opportunities is draw out some of the most Unknown Speaker 16:01 else we're drawn up, we spend a lot of time. So what I'm seeing in the data time and time again is that youth are the little dance generation. See this over and over more than any other age group, and in my book, I wrote about examples like mandatory endothelial classes in Denmark, or, you know, initiatives to create a connected campus in Canada. There's a lot going on. I'm sure those of you from edu, many of you are working on this where there's an opportunity here, we need to mandate teaching social health schools. Sorry, we need to mandate teaching social health skills in schools. We already mandate in class. Why are we not mandating connection class? We need this information if we're teaching kids to strengthen their physical bodies, why would we not teach it teach them to strengthen their social muscles as well. Honestly, I think this is the number one way that we can completely change the course of social health for future generations. It needs to start from a young age, because those skills and socialist Unknown Speaker 17:28 act oftentimes more time with our co workers than we do with our friends. So what is so important to note here is that whether that time is connected or It's lonely, is going to have an outsized Unknown Speaker 17:48 seeing them. Unknown Speaker 18:05 There's a need and an opportunity. Here is that there are some workplace programs to improve social health in the workplace, but not that many. And I believe that every single team, whether remote, whether hybrid, whether in person, full Time, should have a Unknown Speaker 18:32 the next hair on a bathroom. Unknown Speaker 18:40 The flip fit teams, whether big or small, remote person has to be the third opportunity I need here is that we spend a lot of time online. What I'm seeing is a huge influx in the amount of investing and kayaking and startups, apps, new tech platforms to help people connect. There is so much innovation going on in this space in particular, and right now, meanwhile, we're in the midst of this reckoning right with social media. We have Australia, who's banned it for people over 16. We have other countries only in cities. And meanwhile, we're reconciling all that, trying to build new tools. Along comes AI. Are we sick of AI yet? Unknown Speaker 19:34 Well, we got to talk about it, right? Because AI companions are here. 49% of Gen Z has already formed a meaningful relationship with AI. 37% of Gen Z can see themselves falling in love with an AI companion. Unknown Speaker 19:56 Now these are much higher than I see forever, especially Unknown Speaker 20:13 big topic. I'm not gonna have time to go into all the details about the key. With leaders from open AI, from United Nations, Frontier collectives. You can join us at that if you're interested. But the bottom line is where there's a need and an opportunity here, whether it's with AI, whether it's with social media or all the new tech platforms that are emerging, founders and investors in this space need to be so making for how these tools support our social Unknown Speaker 20:51 started studying AI companions for my book. I was researching that in 2023, three years ago, and already there was I'm going out and imagine another figure four the time, or the last place where we spend a lot of time is where we live, right in our communities and in our neighborhoods. So what I'm seeing have some of the best solutions. They're not tech photos, they're not sexy and cool and new. They're grassroots. They're hyper local. They're nonprofits and community based organizations and inspired individuals who see an opportunity to connect people locally and a point for it. If you've read my book, you've heard about the Super neighbors in Paris, a really cool example of this. For the community connectors in San Francisco, I could list hundreds of 1000s of examples of local initiatives to connect people who recruit social health, but where there's need an opportunity here, Unknown Speaker 22:18 part of the reason that that Community lens is so important is because people are creating in person connection, right? Genesee declared 2026 the year of analog. We're sick of digital or low and analog in person. And the research is so clear that in person, human connection, has unique efforts. There's nothing better than what we're doing here. Of the Unknown Speaker 23:24 an in person or connection. The rest of us need to catch up to them. All right, so with these various needs and opportunities, whether that be in school, at work or online or indoor communities, I want to close with kind of a call to action for you to think about. And by the way, feel free to submit questions as I continue to talk through this in recent decades. We Unknown Speaker 24:00 we've seen the same trend now booming industry that has emerged around mental health, and much of that innovation has given more resources as Unknown Speaker 24:30 same position that mental health was 20 years ago, And that industry around it is just starting to work. Unknown Speaker 24:50 Session, I found trepidation should be really exciting, because I have been catalyzing and advocating for social health to rise up for years, but it makes me a little nervous about the potential risks here, and so in my keynote last year, I predicted that every side seeing that start to happen. We're seeing the early architecture of this new market category that's going to influence hospitality, workplace strategy that's Unknown Speaker 26:02 story for Angel, Unknown Speaker 26:20 awesome. At the end of the event, you know, we had this nice time. Did all these different conversation conference. We gathered back together and shared and it was really beautiful. And it was eye opening a couple stories. One was a woman on Unknown Speaker 27:10 other woman in her 40s said that she's alone, that she wasn't dating, she wasn't married, and she didn't have any friends. My problem is that Unknown Speaker 27:49 other social help is officially so it seems, going from the niche to the mainstream activity, we Need to ensure that this movement is grounded evidence of Unknown Speaker 28:31 Oh, so you're going to move into Q and A. There were questions before we even started. So I'm excited to dive into all of this with you, but I do just want to share a few examples of ways that we can continue this conversation. So while they're bringing those questions up, here are a few ways that we can stay in touch. The first is, questions. The first is that I have a newsletter that is the best place to get ongoing updates and 1000s of calls. The second place is that my website isn't Unknown Speaker 29:40 you see globally that are actively including social health. If I'm going to be honest, they're usually not the sexy ones, right? They're usually not the type ones. It goes back to what I Unknown Speaker 30:00 your neighbors and parents, right? This is people who gather together and said, We're going to make a good work for us to know all our neighbors, and they have programming, and they have WhatsApp groups, and they have all this infrastructure. I've seen conditions around the world that gives me so much hope, because it's not just that they're effective. It's that any of us has the ability to do something like that to make a difference. Okay, is there social health just a sub genre of mental health? I'm so glad you asked this. No, it's not easy answer. But the reason why go back to this idea that physical health is about our bodies, and mental health is about our mindset, the impact of relationships on our health and well being is so big, right? There are few things that so many on as much as they do the power of connection or our health and well being so because of that upsize in the Unknown Speaker 31:25 acts like dogs and cats impact social health. Unknown Speaker 31:34 You know, anything that helps us feel connected is good, so I love as an animal to fully support it. But there is something about Unknown Speaker 31:53 help like a vital sign, what would be the closest equivalent? There we go, appropriate the one or two core signals, move on on a health dashboard. I love this question. There is increasingly working done to prescribe connection in the medical context, which is called Social prescribing. So we're going to see more of thinking about social health like my outside in the years to come. But what I would say is it's very subjective, so this is going to need to ask questions, because you can't look at someone and know how socially healthy they are. It could be that someone's the life of the party and socializing all the time can yet feel to be disconnected. Or on the flip side, it could be that people don't spend that much time They have a few core relationships. So it's going to Unknown Speaker 33:09 three and three days. This is a good one in the social health data record. Unknown Speaker 33:32 Do people, as I'm sure many of you can know better than me, have different have different ways of relating to people and forming relationships. And so what it means to be socially healthy for Unknown Speaker 33:55 someone who is neurodivergent is going to be different from what it means to be socially healthy. Do you have any non obvious tips to exercise the social muscle? Fun? Okay, non obvious tip is to do an act of kindness or volunteer, right? It stays counterintuitive because you're doing some Unknown Speaker 34:24 A study by researchers that can this? How? Unknown Speaker 35:04 Do big tech companies be interested in supporting and CO creating solutions that strengthen social Health? That's a good question. Are you still looking rafae Some. Transcribed by https://otter.ai