This article originally appeared in The Detroit News December 3, 2024.

Americans have a loneliness problem.

New research shows that many adults in the United States experience loneliness, and rates are even higher among young adults. The problem is serious enough that local governments across the country are addressing it. Can we reverse this troubling trend?

In a recent study Harvard researchers found that 21% of adults reported feeling lonely within the previous 30 days. People ages 30 to 44 recorded the highest levels at 29%. The specific manifestations of loneliness are even more troubling. Sixty-seven percent of lonely adults say they aren’t part of a meaningful group or community, while 61% say they don’t have enough close friends or family.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy gave the topic a big boost last year when he issued an advisory on loneliness and isolation.

Surgeon general advisories are a unique tool, reserved for urgent public health issues. Issuing a generation-defining advisory is the surgeon general’s highest professional achievement, like a quarterback winning the Super Bowl or an actress earning an Oscar. Consider Luther L. Terry’s 1964 report on the hazards of smoking cigarettes or C. Everett Koop’s reports on AIDS in 1986 and drunk driving in 1989.

Murthy’s loneliness advisory said the high rates of loneliness constitute an epidemic. Loneliness is associated with higher risks of heart disease, dementia, strokes and depression. The advisory gave a startling comparison: “Lacking social connection is as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.” (If you want to declare a new public health crisis, smoking is the touchstone.)

I wasn’t surprised to hear this concern about loneliness. The trendlines toward isolation are obvious in all aspects of life.

First, look at family life: The U.S. marriage rate reached a 50-year low in 2021. Men and women are waiting longer to get married. We are having fewer children. And the implications of smaller families compound over time — fewer cousins, fewer grandchildren, fewer connections.

Second, we spend less time with people outside our own households. People of all faiths are attending religious services less frequently, according to Gallup. More people work remotely. The time we spend volunteering, whether serving at a soup kitchen or helping an elderly neighbor mow her lawn, is down.

Third, because of technology, people can minimize in-person contact to nearly zero: Work is done through email and video calls; the mobile phone becomes one’s primary entertainment platform; and all goods and services can be delivered to one’s doorstep. Even Starbucks, that famed “third place” between work and home, has become a sterile waiting room of impatient commuters picking up their mobile orders.

No wonder we’re lonely.

The breakdown of civil society is heartrending, but the proposed solutions range from head-scratching to dystopian.

In his loneliness advisory, Murthy calls for a National Strategy to Advance Social Connection. (Nothing unites Americans like the prospect of telling others what to do.) Murthy praises the role of public transportation. (Who doesn’t enjoy making friends on the subway?) He says tech companies should “design technology that fosters healthy dialogue and relationships,” which sounds like science fiction.

Elsewhere, South Korea announced it will spend hundreds of millions to make Seoul a “loneliness-free” city. The United Kingdom created a minister of loneliness.

Admittedly, this problem is not easy to address. Experts argue over how to define loneliness. They measure it in multiple ways. And the underlying causes of disconnectedness are myriad and powerful.

Americans have a loneliness problem. What should we do?

Past surgeon general advisories have galvanized culture change. But addressing loneliness will take more than public spending or regulations. It starts with people like you and me.

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