You may be reading this in a room full of people, all silent and fixated on their phones. We are sharing space, but no words are exchanged. Are we losing our ability to connect with others?
Loneliness has become increasingly more common in the 21st century. In 2023, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy made a devastating announcement: loneliness is a public health epidemic. While this crisis extends globally, the United States provides a prime example of state failure to address it. Society treats loneliness as a personal problem, but Murthy stresses that it is, in fact, a systemic issue. Our lonely society cannot heal through the efforts of individuals alone; a real solution will require structural change. When states do not integrate people into society, they build the foundation for loneliness.
Loneliness is a mental health crisis, and mental health is fundamental to human rights. States that ignore the loneliness epidemic are not simply negligent; they are violating basic human rights.
Who is affected?
The statistics on social isolation are frightening. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, half of US adults reported meaningful levels of loneliness. Today, young people aged 15 to 24 report 70% less social interaction than their peers over the last two decades, making Gen Z the loneliest generation. These and other statistics not only are depressing but also shed light on the serious physical consequences of loneliness. Low social interaction puts one at greater risk of “cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death,” in Murthy’s summary. It is painfully clear that loneliness and isolation together represent one of the most urgent health crises of our time.
Although loneliness can affect anyone regardless of race, sex, class, and age, it disproportionately affects those living in poverty or facing discrimination and other systemic barriers. These individuals often lack the resources and opportunities to benefit from community programs or mental health services, and they tend to live in environments that do not foster connection or community. A lack of policies aimed at integrating these individuals into society exacerbates these issues. The state has the power to intervene but too often does not. As Murthy warns, “given the profound consequences of loneliness and isolation, we have an opportunity, and an obligation, to make the same investments in addressing social connection” as we have made in addressing other public health crises.
Loneliness is an urgent human rights issue
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to a “standard of living adequate for [their] health and well-being," including access to medical care and necessary social services. The UN Human Rights Council explicitly acknowledges that health encompasses both physical and mental health. Importantly, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stresses that “mental health is a fundamental human rights concern and essential to realize the right to health.” If states allow or cultivate environments systematically detrimental to the mental health and well-being of their citizens, they have failed to fulfill their human rights obligations. This is exactly what is happening. The large number of lonely people is proof of this failure.
When states fail to integrate people into society, the world becomes less safe. Extensive research has shown that social exclusion is linked to increased aggression and violence. When individuals are deprived of what makes them distinctly human—social interaction—they can become capable of devastating acts of violence.
This pattern is observable in two different contexts: the recent shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan refugee in Washington, DC, and the countless school shootings in the United States carried out by mostly young white men and boys. The media presentation of these two incidents leads one to believe the causes are entirely distinct. On the one hand, we are told that refugees, specifically those from the Global South, are inherently more violent than native-born US citizens, and therefore the country should tighten immigration policies. On the other hand, commentators describe school shooters as isolated tragedies rather than part of a systemic issue. But both stories share the same root condition: the shooters were lonely, unintegrated, and neglected by society. This is a double injustice. First, the state fails to integrate individuals; then it uses that failure to justify further exclusion. Implementing effective measures to combat loneliness and foster belonging would help address the surge of violence we are unfortunately witnessing.
What can be done?
To solve this epidemic of loneliness, states need to treat integration as an obligation. On a practical level, this means investing in community mental health programs and making them accessible to everyone, regardless of means. For people to feel that they belong, the state needs to invest in “social infrastructure,” including public spaces, community centers, and youth programs. A growing number of countries have begun addressing loneliness. The United Kingdom elevated loneliness to a ministerial-level concern in 2018; Japan has enacted policy measures to address loneliness and isolation; and the Netherlands has launched several community initiatives, including “Chatty Checkouts” encouraging connection among customers and cashiers. Other countries have shown how to stem the loneliness epidemic; now it is time for the US to take concrete action.
Loneliness is not inevitable. It is a result of state neglect. We have built a world where people are physically together but deeply alone. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights obliges states to protect people's health, including mental health, which is currently at risk. We have already seen the effects, both individually and socially, when loneliness is not addressed. By failing to integrate people, states are putting individuals' mental health at risk and infringing on their basic human rights.
The question I posed at the beginning about whether we are losing our ability to connect is perhaps not the most important one. As Hannah Arendt warned, the more urgent question is whether states will act before our isolation erodes our capacity to think, inching us closer and closer to totalitarianism.