In 2023, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared loneliness a national epidemic, linking social disconnection to significant health threats akin to smoking. His advisory report correlates America's decline in social interaction with adverse health outcomes, referencing a study that likened isolation's mortality impact to smoking. The COVID-19 pandemic heightened social isolation trends that began decades earlier, reinforcing themes from Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone," which documented the decline of American social capital since the 1950s. These insights highlight the urgent need for community engagement and reconnection as a remedy to this growing epidemic.
Dr. Vivek Murthy has declared loneliness a national epidemic, stressing that reduced social interactions pose major threats to health, akin to smoking 15 cigarettes daily.
The ongoing trend of increased social isolation, accentuated by COVID-19, mirrors themes from Robert Putnam's 2000 work, "Bowling Alone," that identified long-term declining social capital.
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