Derek Thompson coined the phrase “the anti-social century” to describe an incredible rise over the course of the 21st century in the amount of time that people spend alone. He recently joined Jerusalem and me to talk about it.
This is an issue I’m concerned about. Recent technological progress has been very concentrated in the realm of home entertainment pursuits that have left people spending more time alone and lacking human connection.
Jerusalem is more optimistic — insisting that we distinguish between loneliness and aloneness and that we see much clearer evidence of a rise in the latter than in the former. There’s nothing wrong, she argues, with people being alone as long as it’s not making them lonely and sad. It seems to me, though, that people increasingly are sad and angry even if they don’t say that they are lonely. And people who espouse moderate or liberal politics need some explanation for bad vibes that doesn’t cede the substantive ground to illiberal forces.
Derek brings some data to help draw these distinctions, and we discuss it all.
Next month on the podcast, Jerusalem and I will be reading Friedrich von Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom.” If you have comments or questions about the book you’d like us to discuss, drop a line in the comments below!
Paid subscribers can watch the ad-free embedded video at the top of this post and read the full transcript below.
WATCH THE EPISODE ON YOUTUBE HERE
New episodes post every Thursday.
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Slow Boring to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
