Today: Why are Americans becoming so lonely? Milena Batanova on a problem U.S. officials have called an “epidemic.”

+ New music from HTRK …

Only connect

People in the United States are, data shows, very lonely. It’s gotten so bad that U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says Americans are suffering from a “loneliness epidemic.” They have fewer friends than they used to: In 1990, only 3 percent said they didn’t have a close friend; by 2021, 12 percent said they didn’t. And Americans don’t just have fewer friends; they spend less time interacting with other people altogether. Today, most give only about 34 minutes a day to genuine human connections.

When people have no one to turn to, they’re more likely to experience anxiety and depression. The risk of stroke increases by 32 percent; the risk of heart disease, by 29 percent; and dementia, by 50 percent. Literally, loneliness kills.

What’s going on?

Milena Batanova is the director of research and evaluation for the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Making Caring Common project. Batanova says Americans are spending more and more time on their own partly because they want to: When you ask commuters if they’d like to talk with other people on their way to work, they mostly decline—even though there’s good evidence that they like it when they try it. But this kind of voluntary withdrawal from social life, Batanova says, can slip into involuntary isolation over time, as people convince themselves that they can’t handle—or don’t really want—social interactions.

And helping people out of loneliness can be hard. In part, that’s because they tend to think of loneliness as a single thing: a lack of human connection. Even public-health officials tend to think this. But Batanova says it’s more a cluster of experiences. It’s not just about how much time you spend with other people or how many friends you have; it’s also about having a sense of belonging to a collective and feeling you have a purpose in life. But because loneliness isn’t a single problem, there isn’t a single solution for it …

• An apparent vote for democracy in South Korea. Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party won a huge victory in South Korea’s presidential election on Tuesday, defeating Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party by about 12 points. The country was holding a special election after the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who illegally declared martial law last December. Lee campaigned on the themes of rejecting authoritarian rule and restoring democracy. Most of the country’s recent elections have been extremely close, so the margin he won by—and the exceptionally high voter turnout—look like an emphatic public endorsement of those themes. … See Stephan Haggard, “Crisis in Seoul.”
• A collapse in Amsterdam. The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday after Geert Wilders, the leader of the populist-right Freedom Party, pulled his ministers out of the cabinet. Wilders is critical toward immigrants and Islam, said he brought down the government because he wants to impose tougher restrictions on immigration, and thinks he can win a snap election by more than he won last time around in November. Immigration may be the most polarizing issue in European politics—and this would seem to put it at the center of the upcoming campaign. … See Matthias Matthijs, “Now Holland.”
• A quiet anniversary in China. Wednesday marked the 36th anniversary of the massacre of hundreds—or possibly thousands—of political protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square by the People’s Liberation Army. In 1989, demonstrators, led by students, had gathered in the square for weeks, demanding democratic reforms. Since then, Chinese citizens have never publicly turned out in such numbers for the cause of democracy; and government censorship has steadily grown, especially online—even if people still express views critical of the regime, as they did during the protests in 2022 against strict Covid lockdowns. … See Glacier Kwong, “Scream to a whisper.”
• Meanwhile. With its birthrate in decline, Vietnam repeals its two-child policy. … Canadian wildfires are causing dangerous air pollution in the U.S. … Violence continues in Gaza. … TikTok is banning a hashtag linked to “unhealthy” weight-loss videos. … & Bill Gates pledges more than US$100 billion for health care and education in Africa.

See you Saturday morning …

Please send questions or comments here.

Interested in getting your teams or students

access to The Signal? Please be in touch.

Find us on Linkedin, Instagram, Bluesky, or X.

Add us to your address book.