In 2018, citing “one of the greatest public health challenges of our time,” British prime minister Teresa May created the government post of “Minister of Loneliness.” In 2020, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy published a book, Together, in response to the loneliness he heard about repeatedly during a months-long listening tour of America. Authorities in Japan, Italy, the Netherlands and elsewhere have raised similar alarms and proposed solutions.
But is there really an epidemic of loneliness? What I found, when I looked into this, was social scientists, media commentators and government officials again and again talking about “loneliness and social isolation” as two linked aspects of one horrible problem that not only causes mental suffering but also worsens dementia, damages one’s immune resources and shortens lives.