Steven Bartlett with Dr Bill von Hippel
Borrowing a neighbor's tools creates a reason to talk. Buying your own removes that need. Modern convenience repeatedly offers a choice between independence and the ties that come from relying on others.
Our evolutionary drive for autonomy originally helped us secure the best personal prospects within a tight-knit tribe, but today it can cause us to self-isolate and weaken the social connections tied to psychological well-being.
While urban living and increased wealth provide more opportunities and comfort, they also strip away the mandatory interdependence that naturally bonds poorer communities together.
Modern innovations like pornography and social media hijack our biological reward systems by providing high-stimulus, low-effort substitutes that can reduce actual sexual intimacy and real-world socializing.