According to anthropologists, it is normal, and healthy, to be in occasional contact with up to 150 other people – and in regular contact with a small number of close friends. This is still the situation in rural areas of Africa and New Guinea; it was how we lived in pre-historic times and the pattern even persisted into the mediaeval era. City life and industrialisation has reshaped our social environment and it has become harder to maintain a healthy balance of relationships.
Retired people are especially at risk of becoming isolated. We do not travel outside our homes as much as when we were working and raising a family; the friends we have known for many years may move away, or sadly, die. Both our large tribe and close circle of friends is liable to shrink during retirement. So what can be done about this?
The size of our tribe and the number of people we call friends in retirement depends on us. Creating contacts with other people was easier before; now we have to work at it more seriously. It is too easy to hide away at home and complain of boredom and a lack of visitors. Get out there and meet new people: join a club, a choir or an association; volunteer for a charity; help in a school or library; coach a team; bush-walk with a group; enrol in classes with U3A or WEA; talk to people on the train, in supermarkets and cafes, and so on. And how about encouraging those other retirees who also crave more human contact and show them the way.
Renaissance not Retirement 