There is no epidemic of loneliness, but there is an epidemic of scurvy

> no one is getting rich selling anti-loneliness pills (yet)

Annual sales of antidepressants in North America are about $8 billion.

This "loneliness" part of this article is confusing to me.

> People are more alone than ever, but they’re not feeling much lonelier than they used to. So maybe all this extra solitude is...fine?

Okay but the data examined for "more alone" is US data with unclear age range (most likely adults). But the data examined for "not feeling much lonelier" is UK data and US school teenager data. I feel like there's a massive blind spot with the fact there's no US adult data...?

I'd be interested in a good article that questioned the loneliness epidemic narrative, but this isn't it.

The scurvy part definitely tracks. So many developers live on ramen and energy drinks; basic nutrients become an afterthought.

> no one is getting rich selling anti-loneliness pills (yet)

There is already an ecosystem of for-profit social events in European cities (and probably elsewhere) profiting off people's desire to meet up with other human beings when social opportunies have shrunk. Once has seen this on e.g. Meetup.com or Facebook for years now, where bot profiles are used to swell event-signup numbers so people think they will meet more people. Indeed, with the enshittification of Meetup, the only forces that prosper on that site are for-profit ones.

He makes good points on statistics but at the base of all of the data, it's just surveys... I know it's not feasible to survey everyone all the time, but I wouldn't make any conclusions off such data

Do people not like juice? How do you get scurvy in 2026?

> no one is getting rich selling anti-loneliness pills (yet)

No but those who claim to have observed a worrying phenomenon will be interviewed by the press, invited to conferences, listened to by politicians, and will be first in line to receive further grants to study the worrying phenomenon. It's not corruption, it's just normal gratification for your hard work and a feeling of being relevant. Better than studying things and having to report on the absence of any finding.

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