If cheesy laugh-track sitcoms have taught us anything, it’s that the pub isn’t just a place to get drunk. The community you build by being a regular at a pub can be valuable for improving your own life.
Photo by Russel Trow.
As researchers at Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology explain, there are social benefits to being a regular at a pub. Bars and pubs offer patrons a chance to relax outside their home with like-minded individuals at a shared place they all appreciate. This helps foster community, which in turn has a positive effect on overall happiness:
Friendship and community are probably the two most important factors influencing our health and well-being. Making and maintaining friendships, however, is something that has to be done face-to-face: the digital world is simply no substitute. Given the increasing tendency for our social life to be online rather than face-to-face, having relaxed accessible venues where people can meet old friends and make new ones becomes ever more necessary.
Of course, pubs aren’t the only place where building community is possible — churches, clubs and after-hours work events are all candidates as well — but the researchers note that pubs offer the opportunity for a little alcohol to grease the social wheels, as well as a shared space that’s not devoted to a single task. Also, keep in mind that this research was sponsored by the Campaign For Real Ale, so this may not be a scientifically rigorous claim, but it’s at least something that’s worth discussing over a schooner.
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One response to “Spend Time At Your Local Pub To Build Community And Your Own Happiness”
Situational Acquaintances. Pub friends are usually pub friends. If you stop going to the pub, you’ll lose track of most of them. Realistically though, most adult “friends” are situational acquaintances, they most likely wont drop by your house, or you by theirs, you meet up because it’s convenient through mutual activities.