The Hidden Health Benefits of Friendship
Vanessa Valentino • March 3, 2024
For as long as we’ve known it, the current culture appraises and advertises romantic relationships, placing a value in them that platonic relationships fall short of matching. However, the appeal of romantic endeavors should not eclipse the merits of good friendship. Let’s go back to the power of friendship, the integral theme of childhood media, and back it up with science this time as we explore the benefits of platonic relationships on our health.
Physical Health
On a primitive level, friendship directly affects how we exist, protecting our body as we undergo life’s challenges. When talking to a supportive friend, blood pressure reactivity is lower the closer one feels to them. When completing a difficult task, heart rate reactivity is lower with a friend, as opposed to without. The slope of a hill, even, seems to level out just a little more when accompanied by a friend. On a larger scale, physical influences such as these morph friendship into a vital tool in living a long and healthy life. High-quality adult friendships, for example, ward off mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and people without high-quality friendships are twice as likely to die prematurely, with greater susceptibility to heart attack and stroke. To put it into perspective, that’s a risk factor more dangerous than smoking 20 cigarettes per day!
Emotional Health
Beyond friendship’s effects on physical health, friendship is a big factor in maintaining our emotional wellbeing. While this—as illustrated previously—is most effective with close friends, it extends toward acquaintances as well. A study from 2014 found that people with more positive interactions with acquaintances each day are happier than those who have fewer interactions; generally, friendships provide us with an outlet for social connection, and the unique and abundant nature of platonic relationships isn’t something that can be easily replaced with romantic and familial bonds. However, this isn’t to say that they compete with each other. Instead, each relationship is a learning experience that builds character, furthering our emotional maturity and expanding our life skills. In this way, romantic and platonic relationships actually work hand in hand, as friendships in youth develop characteristics that are essential in sustaining successful romantic relationships in the future. When navigating friendships, we build empathy for others, provide support, and even practice problem-solving and communication skills: traits that end up being the foundation of a healthy romantic relationship.
Social Disconnect
Today, we live in a society with technology that has connected us to each other in ways unforeseen. At any time that’s convenient, we can easily see and converse with friends across the globe. However, curiously enough, the social disconnect has only worsened as technology improves. It especially intensified after 2012, as smartphones and social media grew in popularity. In 2021, 12% of U.S. adults claimed they did not have any close friends, compared to the 9% in 1990. This trend grew steeper during the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating the movement toward social isolation and disconnect. Undoubtedly, the deficiency in social connection throughout quarantine played a notable part in the plunge in mental health during the epidemic. Knowing that social interaction is such an important part of our physical and emotional wellbeing, the current trajectory toward social isolation is certainly unsettling.
With these points in mind, let’s move forward with a new appreciation for and emphasis on our platonic relationships. Friendship may not solve everything, as our childhood cartoons illustrated, but it’s undeniable that they are one of the most important and invaluable experiences we’ll encounter in a lifetime.