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No but those who claim to have observed a worrying phenomenon will be interviewed by the press, invited to conferences, listened to by politicians, and will be first in line to receive further grants to study the worrying phenomenon. It's not corruption, it's just normal gratification for your hard work and a feeling of being relevant. Better than studying things and having to report on the absence of any finding.
There is already an ecosystem of for-profit social events in European cities (and probably elsewhere) profiting off people's desire to meet up with other human beings when social opportunies have shrunk. Once has seen this on e.g. Meetup.com or Facebook for years now, where bot profiles are used to swell event-signup numbers so people think they will meet more people. Indeed, with the enshittification of Meetup, the only forces that prosper on that site are for-profit ones.
Social media, dating apps, even andrew tate was doing well till some point.
I don't know much about Andrew Tate (what I've heard suggest I don't even want to look him up, but maybe I should)
For Social Media and dating apps - both ran into similar problems: they are a small part of the means. Facebook only have 5-10 minutes of real friend content per day. Dating apps can perhaps fill more time per day - but success means you "find someone" and close your account never to return. If you want to get rich you need to find some way to extend the time people spend on your platform - and that means something other than your premise. Facebook is filled with garbage. Any mildly successful dating app will be bought out by a big player because that app is taking away from the big player.
I really wouldn't. If you don't know anything about him, count yourself lucky.
They're called nightclubs and bars lol trust HN to be so insulated from the wider world
This "loneliness" part of this article is confusing to me.
Okay but the data examined for "more alone" is US data with unclear age range (most likely adults). But the data examined for "not feeling much lonelier" is UK data and US school teenager data. I feel like there's a massive blind spot with the fact there's no US adult data...?
That was the point of the first part: nobody has data and so we cannot say there is any trend.
Despite the lack of data, I have no hunch that there is any such trend anyway. Just wanted to say that before somebody inevitably says the opposite.
My gut feeling says: don't ask me, I'm a gut.
The scurvy part definitely tracks. So many developers live on ramen and energy drinks; basic nutrients become an afterthought.
The energy drinks often contain a lot of added vitamins.
Most of them of the B group for various reasons. Addition of vit C is not that common.
He makes good points on statistics but at the base of all of the data, it's just surveys... I know it's not feasible to survey everyone all the time, but I wouldn't make any conclusions off such data
I think we are getting pretty close to that.
Do people not like juice? How do you get scurvy in 2026?
In the world of protein low carb pop tarts juice is poison.
How hard is it to find some high-protein fruit juice these days?
Given that there's no strong regulation that forces fruit juice to be made from fruit, I'd wager that this is already a product line.
Not the point of the post. Just a clickbaity-ish comparison to reel you in.
The article is talking about "social scurvy", which they use as a metaphor for people not realising they need to get out of the house and meet up with other people every now and then.
I'd be interested in a good article that questioned the loneliness epidemic narrative, but this isn't it.
It’s an interesting point made in about 10X the words it should have taken.
It’s a major issue I have with nonfiction in general though. Most of the words are superfluous. Unlike fiction it’s not prose-poetry or storytelling art either, just dry filler.
Except that the most effective way of conveying facts _is_ through narrative and storytelling.
That and powerpoint, obviously.
It's not effective on the large fraction of people who tune out due to the length.
I'm skeptical of whether that's always true, especially today.
Usually when I want pure facts I now want concise and to the point. If I want art I read fiction. Fiction can convey other things, even facts and new ideas, but the main reason it exists (at least for me) is that it's art.
I've only heard of "loneliness epidemic" in terms of "male loneliness epidemic" and it's framed entirely around young men not getting the attention they expect from women.
The male loneliness epidemic is also known as the growth of incel circles and the influence of supposedly masculine influencers who will do literally anything but treat women both as equals and with respect. And the way these groups work is that they need to keep their membership up, so it's in their interest to keep you away from women by turning you against them.
Whatever narrative there is about young men being left behind by progressiveness, it is a big lie over a smaller truth (the system fails everyone and now it is sometimes failing young white men, in terms of education). Not so different to the great replacement theory I would imagine, but based on gender not race/religion.
I feel like this is really unfair.
Robert Putnam has chronicled how third spaces are gone (more than 20 years ago). This is a major problem in society and it doesn't just have to do with males and it does not only have to do with incel oriented stuff. "Deaths of despair" are up.
When you sit down and write this stuff I think you need to stake a step back and ask what you are contributing. This is just a mean screed aimed at men and doens't oaffer any evidence for why you think lonely men should be cast as just wanting undeservfed attention from women.
If you think that, at least explain why. What is the point of this comment except to make you feel superior by recycling some snark?
Annual sales of antidepressants in North America are about $8 billion.
Yes, but they start by giving those to children and teenagers, and telling them that if they ever stop taking the pills they'll kill themselves.
It's almost like the primary objective is to make money rather than 'protect the children'.
Making lots of money protects the children of the shareholders from being poor. Perhaps even their childrens children. Or their childrens childrens children. /s
Weird post. I like the way it's written, there are lots of very interesting links, and the images are quite unique. But it goes on and on, and the conclusion is lacking.
I'd enjoy it for fun, to pass the time, to read a dozen follow-up articles. But as a one-off post to learn and inform myself? Ugh.
Unrelated, but two of the many links have ChatGPT referals. I'm not sure what to think of it. I guess it's fine?
Interesting factoid:
[0]: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15298868.2020.18...
[1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002210312...
I think it's a side-effect of certain facets of intelligence, mistrained or unrestrained:
Repeatedly processing memory, recursively calling the same function without a limit or exit condition :)
"There is no epidemic of loneliness" say the people who don't know what loneliness is, ≈ "Just stop being so depressed!"
What's undeniable is the disgusting monetization (and control) of connecting people.
I have worked on efforts to connect people with each other.
What I've noticed in many of these meetups created for other people to mingle, is that a lot of people that drop by, who don't have a loneliness problem, make the atmosphere worse for everybody else who does. Instead of fostering genuine connections, they just "don't see the issue" and shoot down genuine attempts of others (who might be introverts, shy, whatever) to connect. Such a thing is completely out of place, because the whole motivation for said meetup was to get people to know each other.
I have started placing notices like "if you have friends, don't come" lol, which is a bit controversial but actually upgrades the experience. An analogy, imagine a married guy dropping into a singles dating event to talk about how a great relationship he's in and "tips to survive a marriage" and whatever (also, if it is that good then why are you here?), you get the idea.
And I also agree with your last sentence.
Funny, I absolutely do develop a hankering for citrus whenever my body needs vitamin C. After a workout, and after getting sun at the beach, or just whenever I've gone a couple days without getting enough vitamin C, I absolutely develop a sudden craving for oranges/grapefruit/pineapple/orange juice/Emergen-C. And it doesn't go away until I have enough.
I assume that this is a kind of learned association, that you can recognize the feeling of vitamin C depletion and your body quickly connects that that goes away when you eat certain foods.
But my body absolutely tells me when I need vitamin C. And whether it's at a level of "it would be a nice idea to have some now" or "you need a LOT more vitamin C RIGHT NOW".
If you eat any vegetables at all it's unlikely you're ever vitamin C deficient. You are probably just craving sugar.
I love being alone. I'm never lonely. Maybe i'm crazy.
Go drink Margs with friends.
Cures both your scurvy and your social scurvy.