Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World
Together is a 2020 book by then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy arguing that loneliness functions as a public health concern comparable in scale to conditions like obesity or smoking, contributing to outcomes ranging from anxiety and depression to substance use and violence. Drawing on research and interviews conducted across the country, Murthy describes how declining in-person social time — a shift he associates partly with technology's dual capacity to both connect and displace face-to-face contact — has coincided with rising isolation among Americans of all ages, including children navigating school and friendships. The book does not focus narrowly on screens, but treats technology's role in this connection-versus-isolation tension as one strand of a broader argument, closing with proposed remedies centered on rebuilding communities, family rituals, and workplace culture. TechKids Foundation includes it as Murthy's fullest public treatment of the tradeoffs technology poses for young people's social connection.
Murthy, Vivek H. Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World. New York: Harper Wave, 2020.