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?
