Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.city-journal.org/decline-of-family-loneliness-epidemic
Alone
The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness.
Kay S. Hymowitz
Spring 2019 The Social Order
Americans are suffering from a bad case of loneliness. The number of people in the United States living alone has gone through the studio-apartment roof. A study released by the insurance company Cigna last spring made headlines with its announcement: ?Only around half of Americans say they have meaningful, daily face-to-face social interactions.? Loneliness, public-health experts tell us, is killing as many people as obesity and smoking. It?s not much comfort that Americans are not, well, alone in this. Germans are lonely, the bon vivant French are lonely, and even the Scandinavians?the happiest people in the world, according to the UN?s World Happiness Report?are lonely, too. British prime minister Theresa May recently appointed a ?Minister of Loneliness.?
The hard evidence for a loneliness epidemic admittedly has some issues. How is loneliness different from depression? How much do living alone and loneliness overlap? Do social scientists know how to compare today?s misery with that in, say, the mid-twentieth century, a period that produced prominent books like The Lonely Crowd? Certainly, some voguish explanations for the crisis should raise skepticism: among the recent suspects are favorite villains like social media, technology, discrimination, genetic bad luck, and neoliberalism....
Alone
The decline of the family has unleashed an epidemic of loneliness.
Kay S. Hymowitz
Spring 2019 The Social Order
Americans are suffering from a bad case of loneliness. The number of people in the United States living alone has gone through the studio-apartment roof. A study released by the insurance company Cigna last spring made headlines with its announcement: ?Only around half of Americans say they have meaningful, daily face-to-face social interactions.? Loneliness, public-health experts tell us, is killing as many people as obesity and smoking. It?s not much comfort that Americans are not, well, alone in this. Germans are lonely, the bon vivant French are lonely, and even the Scandinavians?the happiest people in the world, according to the UN?s World Happiness Report?are lonely, too. British prime minister Theresa May recently appointed a ?Minister of Loneliness.?
The hard evidence for a loneliness epidemic admittedly has some issues. How is loneliness different from depression? How much do living alone and loneliness overlap? Do social scientists know how to compare today?s misery with that in, say, the mid-twentieth century, a period that produced prominent books like The Lonely Crowd? Certainly, some voguish explanations for the crisis should raise skepticism: among the recent suspects are favorite villains like social media, technology, discrimination, genetic bad luck, and neoliberalism....