Yes, Most People Are Pretty Lonely

Why is this? And what, if anything, could we do?

I believe the screenshot here is from this article, which I snaked a free version of because I am a little turd. I did not “rigorously fact-check” the assertions in this pull quote, but all of them seem very logical and true.

In the grand scheme of hand-wringing things since about 2010, I would say “the loneliness epidemic” is top 10, but bottom of the top 10. People care, but not really. Most people have a family member or 1–2 acquaintances or co-workers they can reach out to if they need a car ride, or in another moment of need. Usually they have about the same number for getting a beer or doing a mutual dog walk. I don’t want to dismiss the concept of people that have nobody, because those people definitely exist and in parts of 2017 I felt like one of those people, but I think most people have 1–2 others they can vaguely “count” on.

In other words, it’s an epidemic but it doesn’t directly compare to the need to buy salmon and frozen vegetables for many people, or the need to gnash your teeth about the latest Orange Man Bad thing.

There are a couple of big culprits for why people are lonelier these days, and I can give you the high-level, but honestly entire books can and have been written about this topic (Bowling Alone is the canon standard, albeit old), so this will only skirt what’s happening out there in the world.

Some of the big culprits:

Pursuit of Convenience