Social wealth is the quiet status symbol of now

As humans, we are wired for connection. In a world obsessed with visible markers of wealth, be it designer bags, fancy homes or hordes of followers online, a quieter counter-revolution is taking place away from the screens.

Small dinner gatherings, intentional friendships and silent reading or pickleball communities are gaining precedence over mass digital visibility in cities across India. People are rediscovering the joy of unstructured conversations, of showing up without filters, of belonging to circles where performance isn’t required and of “building a village.”

“When friendships grow from shared interests like reading, I believe they help you grow in many meaningful ways,” said Sayali Telang, a trainee legal associate in Mumbai, who discovered her love for poetry while studying in Ahmedabad and stumbling upon a community of writers at a local bookstore. 

“There was a time I was scared to face people and step out of my comfort zone, but through community events, I found confidence and learned the calm and composure to listen.”

Being “socially wealthy” has become both relevant and aspirational. Social wealth is the richness of meaningful relationships, it is who you can rely on and who relies on you.

In India, this is not new. Extended family and community have long been central to how we survive, live and celebrate. But in the last few decades as digital interaction replaced physical presence, the nature of connection momentarily drifted away. Despite crowded and populous cities, an Ipsos global survey found that 43% of urban Indians report feeling lonely most of the time. 

Now, the pendulum is swinging back to people and places where we are truly known. 

“Intimacy, both physical and emotional, has been shelved for when there is time. And that is not the true nature of human beings,” said Dr. Reena Sharma, founder of The Mind Practice and a psychologist with over two decades of experience.  

“We need to get back to the basics, to how people used to bond with each other, and have better quality of connections rather than counting followers online.”

That return, however, is not effortless. As Sharma points out, building social capital demands emotional labour, the ability to sit in discomfort and have inconvenient conversations.

“It is about small, deliberate and consistent acts of care.”

Social wealth has health benefits too. The Harvard Study of Adult Development, the world’s longest scientific study of happiness, has shown that “good relationships keep us happier, healthier, and help us live longer.” 

In their bestselling book The Good Life, the study authors Bob Waldinger, a psychiatrist at Harvard, and Marc Shultz, a clinical psychologist at Bryn Mawr, wrote that one way of cultivating relationships is through focused attention. Without a sincere curiosity about others, our capacity for understanding and empathy begins to erode. Social media and smartphones can detract us away from the ability to be mindful in our relationships, they added.

And yet, there is optimism in the resurgence of offline community-led spaces.

“These forums, these communities are amazing. I often call them my tools for therapy; they are regular homework for clients,” Sharma said. 

“They do a wonderful job of connecting people and making us a little less lonely.”

Real connection is rarely aesthetic. It is messy, it is inconvenient and it is very human. And perhaps that is why it has become the new marker of wealth and well-being.

Bansari Kamdar is an independent journalist and bookstore owner based in India. Prior to freelancing, she was the Europe, Middle East, and Africa Editor for Reuters’ Global Markets Forum. For more than seven years she has reported on business, economic policy, gender and immigration for domestic and international news media outlets such as BBC, The Boston Globe, The Diplomat and Huffington Post, to name just a few.

Image: Getty Images 

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