RCI:  Americans Are Increasingly Alone, But Are They Really Lonely?

In 2023, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a bombshell report, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” that painted a bleak picture of citizens feeling “isolated, invisible, and insignificant.” Most provocatively, it stated that perhaps half of Americans face a personal crisis of aloneness that poses health risks “similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”

The “Crisis of Loneliness” issue has been in the news for over a decade.  It has always sounded phony to me.  How does anyone gauge the loneliness of others?

I am content spending time at home, with my stoic buddy who doesn’t know my name or his own.  Half of my retired friends are playing pickle ball, many are watching grandbabies and the rest are screwing around on social media.

Loneliness is related to boredom, and the internet makes short work of that.  People don’t belong to fraternal organizations, join bowling leagues or go to the movies.  Big deal, times change.  

The article explains in detail that being alone is not the same as being lonely.

On top of that, why does everything have to be a five-alarm fire?  Why does the former surgeon general call it an ‘epidemic of loneliness’?  The headline could be, “smoking 15 cigarettes a day isn’t so bad, as long as you smoke with a friend.”   If everything is a crisis or epidemic, then nothing is.