Loneliness epidemic

"Loneliness epidemic" refers to the documented rise in social isolation among adults across the developed world over the past 30 years. Multiple datasets converge:

- U.S. Surgeon General Advisory (May 2023): declared loneliness a public health emergency, citing mortality risk equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day. - Pew Research (2024): ~1 in 5 American adults report having no close friends; the share has roughly doubled since the early 1990s. - Cigna Loneliness Index (2023): 58% of U.S. adults report feeling lonely on a regular basis. Rates highest among 18–25 year olds, contradicting the common framing of loneliness as an elderly issue. - Holt-Lunstad et al. (2010): meta-analysis showing social-isolation mortality risk comparable to obesity.

The drivers most commonly cited: working from home, geographic mobility severing existing friend graphs, the decline of "third places" (bars, churches, civic clubs), social-media substitution effects (parasocial connection without reciprocity), and the long tail of the COVID-19 disruption.

Are We Friends? exists because loneliness is now a real public-health problem and existing tools (dating apps, social media, Meetup) optimize for the wrong metrics. The full citation stack is on /loneliness.