“It’s a normal part of the human experience and loneliness, in many ways, is like hunger or thirst,” Murthy said. These changes, coupled with the influx of home delivery and other changes that limit personal interactions, can leave people feeling disconnected. Teenagers and adults reported being online “almost constantly” but across all ages had fewer friends and in-person interactions. Between 20, the time Americans spent alone increased by 24 hours a month, and time with friends in person decreased by 10 hours a month. The advisory cites polls from the 1970s in which 45% of Americans said they could reliably trust other Americans. But as the advisory points out, the issue had been ticking up since the 1970s for a myriad of reasons, including changes in social norms, built environments and, of course, technology. Murthy, who has written about his own personal experience with loneliness and feeling isolated for several years, said the pandemic has brought the disruption of social cohesion to the forefront.
“So bottom line is this has to be a public health priority that we consider on par with tobacco, with substance use disorders, with obesity and other issues that we know profoundly impacted people’s lives.”
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