Is There A Loneliness Epidemic? — Noreena Hertz (Modern Wisdom #266)
Economist Noreena Hertz tells host Chris Williamson that people aged 16 to 24 report the highest rates of regular loneliness of any age group, a pattern she associates with social platforms she describes as built to encourage compulsive checking and with the visible, trackable social exclusion — missed invitations, unliked posts — that these platforms make newly possible. She cites a Stanford/Oxford study finding that deactivating Facebook for a period produced a wellbeing benefit she describes as roughly 40% as large as a course of therapy, and discusses physical health effects of loneliness including raised blood pressure and stress hormones. Hertz proposes rebuilding in-person, shared-interest communities as a partial answer. TechKids Foundation includes this as an early (2021), substantive treatment of the specific claim that social-platform design is associated with youth loneliness, predating several other entries in this batch.
Hertz cites this figure as evidence that young adults report the highest loneliness rates of any age group in the survey data she discusses, despite what she calls their presumed social advantages.
Williamson, Chris, host. "Is There A Loneliness Epidemic? – Noreena Hertz." Modern Wisdom, episode 266, January 7, 2021.