All the Lonely People

"There's a different decline among different groups, but the decline is unanimous across the board."

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Derek Thompson of The Atlantic joins Victoria to answer the question: Why did Americans stop hanging out? The two discuss the steep decline in face-to-face socializing, the rise of loneliness, and the fraternizing role of protests.

The Agenda:
—The decline of social institutions in America
—Smartphones’ effect on teenagers’ lives
—Women turning to pets
—Challenges of raising kids in the digital age

Show Notes:

—Derek for The Atlantic: Meritocracy Is Killing High-School Sports

—Derek for The Atlantic: Concerts? I’ll Pass

—Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

—Watch this episode on YouTube

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Comments (6)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    I always thought I was pretty unsocial, but from the sounds of it I might be above average! Contrary to the image some of my friends and family have of me as an atomized individual, I go out and do things with other people all the time and I’m constantly meeting new people.

    For others though, this is a serious problem, and it deserves public attention. However, our host frightened me when she said the words “public health emergency,” which conjured up Orwellian images in my mind. Fortunately, I had already written a short story about just such a dystopia. Normally, I hate self-plugs, but I feel obligated the share this one. It is free to the general public to read and enjoy:

    https://hardihoodbooks.substack.com/p/the-department-of-loneliness

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  2. Avatar photo
    Daniel Jett

    Interesting discussion; thanks for doing this.

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    J. Eric

    A nice conversation for my morning walk. Thanks

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    This comment has been deleted

  5. Jeff.Oster03

    An episode on loneliness! You guys want to listen to it with me?

    Guys? Guys?

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  6. Jo Jijive

    Hard to take someone seriously who really thinks that any protest movement you can name in the past 50 years has elements of "extraordinary validity". Occupy Wall Street, seriously? Does he think the same thing about Unite the Right?

    At some point, this podcast seemed to turn into "what Derek Thompson thinks people should do", which is not of much intrinsic interest unless Derek Thompson puts some data and analysis behind it. I did think his comments on how protest movements are not religions were interesting, though I think a case could be made that "progressivism" and "nationalism" have many aspects of religions, some of which are on display in this podcast.

    It's a curmudgeonly nit, but it really annoys me when people use scientific phrases like "half-life" colloquially, unless the speaker really thinks that, in some sense, protest movements decay exponentially (and I mean "exponentially" in the mathematical sense, not in the sense of "rilly rilly fast"). If you mean "lifetime", just say "lifetime".

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