We are experiencing a rampant outbreak of loneliness.

Unfortunately, it’s not simply the result of less quality time with friends and family. But instead, it is symptomatic of a larger issue, systemic isolation.

Systemic isolation was likely a natural outcome of the Industrial Revolution. In the latter part of the 19th century, relationships with family, friends, and neighbors began to lose their importance. Men experience more exciting pursuits as their relationships with machines are galvanized. We soon discover that our machines can create even more advanced and sophisticated machines. We don’t need others as much as we do our machines. This new mechanistic relationship reinforces the Western obsession with individualism and self-reliance. We don’t need people as much as we need our machines!

Here are some of the characteristics of systemic isolation.

Releasing ourselves from systemic isolation is no easy task. Once the canopy of estrangement drops over us, we experience alienation as normal. Comforting ourselves in our insular lives leaves us colluding with systemic........

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