Want to live longer? Get to know your neighbours

Shame to admit it but I don't know my neighbours. For several years now I am renting an apartment in a three-story house, with only four tenants. Here comes the worst part. If my immediate neighbours were set in a line with eight strangers, I wouldn't know which my neighbours are.

There are no excuses. Despite cultural and linguistic differences we would find a way to communicate.

Recently during dinner with friends, someone said that neighbour-friendships of the communist era were opportunistic. That usually neighbours came to each other to borrow things. True in some ways, but thanks to that it created a relationship that cemented the democratic society. An innocent inquiry for a half-cup of flour could end up as an all-night bridge marathon. Those times made people more approachable, hence the strong sentiment in the current 40-year-olds, not longing for the system - in which they were too young to participate - but for the quality of relationships.

Interestingly, research on social relations conducted in the US by Robert Putnam of Harvard University and in Poland by Maria Lewicka form the University of Warsaw, come to the same conclusion. The progress of civilization deteriorated social and neighbour relations. So it's not that in the communist times people were closer, but generally, 30-40 years ago there was a different culture of human relations. No matter whether you lived in a democratic United States or communist Poland. Free time equalled family and neighbour time.

Today independents is valued above all else. Distrust and self-isolation dominate - see closed estates. Shops are on every corner, so there are fewer excuses to visit neighbours. Therefore, we must look for other ways to connect with those that are 'nearest' to us, putting in a bit of effort, because, as it turns out, the benefits are quite substantial.

One way to animate neighbourhood life is through social media, such as http://www.inicjatywasadziedzkie.pl/ or http://www.jakleci.pl/ (in Poland). Whichever way, knowing your neighbours better is worth it. Putnam's research shows that people maintaining relationships with their neighbours live longer and their kids do better at school.

We don't know whether extroverts live longer, but when it comes to networking, they are undoubtedly more effective than introverts. On the other hand, introverts are better at cultivating friendships. The conclusion is simple - building lasting relationships with neighbours requires both kinds of people.

P.S. Detective agencies recommend establishing good relations with neighbours, because if someone tries to brake in they will be the first to know. This is what I call opportunism.

More about Robert Putnam's research - click here

More about Professor Maria Lewicka - click here