America’s Loneliness Epidemic Is Eroding Our Democracy

In June, the U.K. Ministry of Loneliness launched a campaign to destigmatize social isolation. It came after the release of data indicating that three in four young adults in the country regularly feel the pangs of loneliness, nearly 60% of urban-dwellers report feeling lonely, and a full four million older people consider television their main form of company.

The data is no better on this side of the pond. As the number of single households has steadily risen in recent years and record numbers of Americans report feeling isolated, leaders like the former Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, MD, are now calling loneliness the greatest public health epidemic of our generation. Loneliness touches one in three older Americans, is nearly as prevalent as obesity and even more deadly — as risky to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It’s no wonder that major health systems are looking for creative solutions to fortify social bonds, including prescribing friendship.

Moreover, chronic stress is at an all-time high, suicide rates have reached the highest levels since WWII, and hospitalizations for suicidal thoughts and actions have more than doubled among young adults in the last decade. Sen. Ben Sasse writes in Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal, “We’re killing ourselves, both on purpose and accidentally. These aren’t deaths…