Though we’ve never had more ways to connect, many studies suggest that people are getting lonelier, and that sense of loneliness is killing us.
“Loneliness has a much more complicated effect on mortality, but its effects are just as strong or only slightly less strong than obesity and smoking,” says Dr. Dhruv Khullar, a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital who has written about the impact that social isolation and loneliness has on his patients.
While there are many causes, ranging from the technology that’s replaced face-to-face communication to the deterioration of traditional community pillars, such as declining attendance at religious institutions and community centers, one major perpetrator might be the modern workplace.