Loneliness: The Epidemic (1/2) - by joss - box.

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After a year of moving to new places and grappling with feeling lonely in various ways and for various reasons, I decided to dedicate some serious time and effort to investigating the loneliness epidemic, the attention-grabbing topic of a report released by the U.S. Surgeon General in 2023. This report was the first time I had found big-picture data to back up the pervasive (and seemingly worsening) mass loneliness I’ve been observing and absorbing from the environments around me for the past 7 years. I started studying loneliness by gathering statistics, reading reports, watching documentaries, scrolling through reddit and youtube comment sections, and listening as people shared their life stories. I then chased real-world experiences of my own: leaving my comfort zone and moving to different cities, paying attention to if I felt lonely (and why), searching for belonging everywhere from running groups to networking events to dating apps to Taylor Swift dance parties. Dealing with lon

💡 This Essay is part 1/2 of my series on loneliness. Read part 2 here! Table of Contents: Introduction The Loneliness Epidemic Studies Key Points Takeaways Ways we try (and fail) to find belonging Building belonging Last September I set out on a mission.1 After a year of moving to new places and grappling with feeling lonely in various ways and for various reasons, I decided to dedicate some serious time and effort to investigating the loneliness epidemic, the attention-grabbing topic of a report released by the U.S. Surgeon General in 2023. This report was the first time I had…

Loneliness: The Epidemic (1/2) - by joss - box.

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