A look at loneliness discourse and the somewhat dubious data supporting it. I am not entirely convinced, but I think the author does a decent job arguing that this is a perennial anxiety and blaming it on recent trends is a touch myopic.
FearlessPark4588 on
By sheer demographic forces alone, we are getting lonelier because the median age of a citizen is rising and older people have fewer social interactions and connections.
Y0___0Y on
I was always skeptical of this phenomenon too
I think people feel like everyone is more lonely because it’s more socially acceptable to talk about lonliness. There are online spaces where people can speak freely about how lonely they are. Before the internet there was nowhere to do that. Hell, on 4chan they seem to compete with each other over who is the lonliest.
What really bothers me is how this phenomenon is really only discussed in terms of how it applies to men. “Male lonliness epidemic” and whatnot.
I feel like that comes from an assumption that women always have people fawning over them and giving them attention. Like sure, attractive women get that. So do attractive men. But I don’t think socially awkward slightly overweight men with bad skin and dry hair are any more lonely than women with the same characteristics.
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A look at loneliness discourse and the somewhat dubious data supporting it. I am not entirely convinced, but I think the author does a decent job arguing that this is a perennial anxiety and blaming it on recent trends is a touch myopic.
By sheer demographic forces alone, we are getting lonelier because the median age of a citizen is rising and older people have fewer social interactions and connections.
I was always skeptical of this phenomenon too
I think people feel like everyone is more lonely because it’s more socially acceptable to talk about lonliness. There are online spaces where people can speak freely about how lonely they are. Before the internet there was nowhere to do that. Hell, on 4chan they seem to compete with each other over who is the lonliest.
What really bothers me is how this phenomenon is really only discussed in terms of how it applies to men. “Male lonliness epidemic” and whatnot.
I feel like that comes from an assumption that women always have people fawning over them and giving them attention. Like sure, attractive women get that. So do attractive men. But I don’t think socially awkward slightly overweight men with bad skin and dry hair are any more lonely than women with the same characteristics.