Why do we long for the company of others?

Question

All humans long for the company of others, it is a basic fact of life that we wish to be with others.

This may take the form of friends and aquantances all the way through to a lover or husband/wife relationship.

My question is why do we long for the company of other humans, what is it about us that makes us want to be with others?

Serious answers only please.

P.S. Please do not only quote about people who don't wish to be with others, this is not the point of the question.

Please explain your answers.

I thank you in advance for your insight.

Answer 1

The reason I believe we as humans desire the company of others is because we are incomplete by our selves. I am a person who very much enjoys being alone, I often have to be pulled away from what ever it is that I am doing when other people want me to be involved in something with them. After they have pulled me away from what ever I am doing I once again remember how wonderful it is to be alive. Even though I can have a great time by my self there is something missing. What is missing is sharing that experience with someone else. Each one of us are reflecting our selves back at each other to exchange ideas, emotions and experiences and most of all love. When you spend to much time alone even if your putting out allot of love into the universe you have to let the universe send its love back to you in order for the cycle to complete it self. Sure there are many other reasons for people to want to be with other people, reasons like security but it is spiritual development that is the real reason we seek to be with each other.

Answer 2

The short answer is that we are "social animals." For millions of years our species has depended on societies -- whether a simple family unit or a tribe or country -- for it's physical survival and at the same time we have traditionally selected out those of the species who behave anti-socially. Only in the last 100 years has technologies made it posible to live apart from society and that just isn't enough time to change our insticts.
It's not at all true that every organism longs for companionship. There are plenty of mamals in fact that are satisfied with an occation mating epesode. Dogs, and the whole wolf family are very social. A wild wolf, removed from the pack, will die. That's been documented.

Answer 3

The obvious answer is that we human beings can experience loneliness. And loneliness is the emptiness of companionship for someone or some creature like a pet, or plant, other than ourselves. Yes it is true some are content to be away from human beings, but not necessarily from other life forms. I guess we are creatures of life as versus non life.

Why do human beings want to be with other human beings? Because we want intelligent life that will respond in kind to the creature that we are, man.

Answer 4

As a Christian, I believe it is encoded in us, because God saw how unhappy Adam was with just "hanging out" with animals that he made a companion, Eve, for Adam so since the begining of time of humans since Adam and Eve we have never been completely alone, so you see it must have been a flaw in our makeup if the first human ever encountered this lonlieness, i believe that it in essential for humans to have contact with other humans for the fact that it has been proven that if one is left by ones self for a long period of time, that person goes mad, they start talking to themselves or inatimate objects (ex. Tom Hanks' character talking to the volleyball Wilson) This would indeed occur, as humans we must have conversations, and other humanly interactions or our minds just can't cope. It must be a brain thing, or just a code in our DNA that we need companionship, and though there are times when people say they would like to be left alone on a desert island, deep down they can't possibly feel that, they may just be feeling a slight depressed or unwanted at that precise moment, but i think that everyone needs someone at some point as i believe its in our chemical makeup to need and want a companion.

Answer 5

First and utmost is the fact that you must remember. We came in alone and we go out alone. In between we become addicted to the touch of not being alone. Always remember that when your with your love, your friend or your family or pet you are either receiving or demanding or giving into that which becomes the parts of your life that balances the loads acquired. All found by not allowing yourself enough time to be alone to acquire strengths. .
The main key to it all is that one should not focus all the time on giving or receiving. In order to recognize the spirit, one must also focus on the innerness that is of the spirit, for without knowing who you really are, one is lost. Another words you have to have time that doesn't cater to others all the time, The only way to find that person that is you is to find the time for you and yourself to discover your relationship to the spirit. When you find you and your spirit you will never be alone for then you have you, your spirit that is of Creator. That's the balance that few attain,

Answer 6

Validation? Reassurance? ...in the form of a human mirror? Babies can be alright/happy alone...but what squeals of joy when they are held and sung to and made crazy faces at. There has got to be a chemical/ electrical thing going on also...

... in gaining the ability to be comfortable with ones own self, in all aspects, somehow being able to bounce thoughts off of/ use someone as a sounding board seems to be how we come to a certain resolve about our own thoughts... and if/when I hear someone affirm my qualities do I believe better about myself? Certainly I would be able to give verbalizations to another that I hear, yes?

Okay, okay I'm going back to school. I promise. This is too much to just bounce off of my head alone.

Answer 7

this is because of our insticts and animalistic behavior. it is true that some say they want to be alone permanently i am one. but inside i know after a while the instincts we have will make us miss others for humans are like dogs in a way they live together and help each other in one way or another, and it is because of these instincts that we long for human companionship.

Answer 8

companionship. that's a complex subject. every organism longs for compainionship. i read an article yesterday about baby monkeys making friends with baby tigers(who don't eat meat yet) and how they were inseperatable. it's sad to picture their fate later, where monkeys will hide away from the tiger to escape death. we long for companionship because the world is big, and live is long. facing it along is intimidating. since we are all living in the same world, it is easy to relate. we long for company becuase we want to share our thoughts, joy, and pain. why? i am not sure. something to do with instinct, perhaps.

Answer 9

Because that's the way it is. Humans have a natural longing for companionship for several reasons.

It's the same reason we long for love. Love/companionship is the closest thing we have to being completely, 100% happy.

It all boils down to what makes you happy, really.

Answer 10

we are intrinsically designed to be with others.It takes togetherness for us to propagate ourselves. One person cannot make a child. We are naturally curious beings,we want to know what and how others think and act. We are raised by others and we learned to be with them and depend on them from the beginning, and it stuck with us to always be with others. WE are created with different talents ,so it behooves us to band together to share our talents for the betterment of mankind. Sometimes we just need answers to questions like this from someone else.