People who live alone or spend a lot of time alone have long been at risk of being stigmatized. Same for people who are single (who do not all live alone or spend a lot of time in solitude). They are urged to get married, or at least live with someone else, and to get out and socialize more.

The pressure to spend lots more time with other people and less time alone was ratcheted up with the publication of Derek Thompson’s cover story in the February 2025 Atlantic magazine, “The Anti-Social Century.” Thompson made a persuasive case that people in the U.S. have been spending much more time alone in the 21st century and less time with other people. He thinks we are choosing to spend that time alone because we find it comforting, entertaining, and convenient, but if we think it is going to make us feel peaceful in the long run, we are just fooling ourselves. Instead, we are undermining our own happiness and making society “weaker, meaner, and more delusional.”

His proposed solution is straightforward: “We would have happier days, years, and lives . . . if we talked with more strangers, belonged to more groups, and left the house for more activities.” And, of course, if we got married. He’s wrong about marriage. Previously, here at Living Single, I reviewed lots of research showing that single people socialize more than married people and contribute more to the civic lives of their cities and towns.

In the days before the internet and social media, articles........

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