Widespread loneliness in the United States poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, the U.S. surgeon general said in May. To raise awareness, he declared loneliness a public health epidemic.
About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy wrote in a report.
“It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing,” Murthy says.
People in the United States became less engaged with churches, community organizations, and even family in recent decades. Research shows that Americans have steadily reported an increase in feelings of loneliness.
The crisis worsened when the coronavirus spread. Schools and workplaces shut their doors. People shrank their friend groups during the pandemic. Americans spent about 20 minutes per day in person with friends in 2020, down from 60 minutes daily nearly two decades earlier.
The epidemic hits young people, ages 15 to 24, especially hard. That age group reported a 70% drop in time spent with friends.
Loneliness isn’t just emotional. It is also correlated with physical health problems. The surgeon general’s report states that loneliness increases the risk of premature death by nearly 30%. Those with poor social relationships have a greater risk of stroke and heart disease. Isolation also elevates a person’s likelihood for experiencing depression, anxiety, and dementia.
God designed humans to need other people. When we lack that which He designed us to have, we suffer. After making Adam, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” (Genesis 2:18) Then He made Eve. God Himself is triune, three-in-one. The three persons of the Trinity are in eternal relationship. As God’s image-bearers, we reflect the importance of relationship.
The surgeon general calls on workplaces, schools, community organizations, parents, and others to boost connectedness. He advises people to join community groups and put down their phones when catching up with friends. He also suggests that health systems train doctors to recognize the health risks of loneliness.
Technology has also made loneliness worse. One study looked at people who used social media for two hours or more daily. Those folks were more than twice as likely to report feeling socially isolated than those who were on such apps for less than 30 minutes per day.
Social media and the internet can be tools, but they aren’t the best places to look for community. “There’s really no substitute for in-person interaction,” Murthy says.
NewsThink
by Rebecca Cochrane, Managing Editor
How can someone feel lonely even while being “social” on social media? Social media claims to connect us more immediately than ever before in history. Yet people today report more loneliness than ever.
It seems counterintuitive—contrary to what you’d expect. If I’m reading friends’ posts and seeing their pictures, and liking, hearting, and commenting, I’m relating, right?
Well, sort of. But not in the way that God designed people to interact, both with others and with Himself.
As image-bearers of God, people have eternal souls. We are more than simply bodies. We are embodied souls. The two cannot be separated while we live. We are meant to experience relationships in the presence of one another, not in the detached, “virtual” way that technology facilitates.
We all have a sense of loneliness at some point. It’s been described as “a God-sized hole” in the human heart. At the fall into sin, the perfect relationship that the first humans shared with God was damaged. When Jesus came in human form and paid for the sin that separated us from our Creator, He began the process that will return us to full relationship—the only thing that will completely satisfy that emptiness.
But as we wait, He wants us to be present with one another—in mind, heart, and body. So get off that device. Invite those friends over. Open your bedroom door and ask your siblings in, or leave your room entirely and help the family make dinner. Put on some music and sing together. Take a walk outside and ask questions about “the old days.”
You might be surprised by how fulfilling even mundane activities can be when shared. Unlike some diseases, loneliness is one epidemic we can begin to address right away.
Why? God made human beings to be in relationship with Him and each other. Loneliness is a “people mover”—it makes a big impact on us and can prompt us to action or inaction out of desperation. But community and relationships are also “people movers,” often in more positive ways.
