Sarah Stein Lubrano at The Ideas Letter:
Governments, social scientists, public health officials, and others have grown concerned about a possible “loneliness epidemic.” They paint a picture that looks a bit like this: old people staring wistfully out the window, young men growing radicalized online, teenagers glued to their phones, missing real-life connections. It’s a worrying portrait. But what we’re facing isn’t a loneliness epidemic. It’s something much worse.
Regardless of societal handwringing about the spread of loneliness, people today do not in fact report feeling any lonelier than previous generations. As one researcher put it, “despite the popularity of the claim, there is surprisingly no empirical support for the fact that loneliness is increasing.” People are not feeling lonelier than they used to, either overall or by age group. But they are spending more hours of the day alone. In America, men have reduced their hours of face-to-face socializing by 30 per cent, unmarried people by 35 per cent, and teenagers by 45 per cent. Americans today report having fewer friends than Americans of previous generations reported back then. Global data on the same metrics are hard to find, but limited data from some countries tracks US trends. People are more alone, though not necessarily more lonely.
And even if people don’t feel any lonelier, all this being alone is very bad news. For neuroscientific research shows that when people spend more time alone, their brains change.
More here.
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