Social atomization is taking its toll on the American population. At this point, you’ve probably come across numerous articles documenting our “loneliness epidemic.” The flurry of coverage has even prompted some in Washington to suggest top-down approaches to combating the problem. Back in July, Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) introduced legislation that would create an “Office of Social Connection Policy,” whose sole objective would be to stamp out social disintegration.
One demographic, in particular, is desperate for social connectedness: young people, ages 18–25. In a new article from Business Insider, researchers found, through qualitative interviews, that young people are willing to spend exorbitant sums of cash on club memberships in an effort to forge much-needed social bonds.
Lynette Ban, one young woman Insider interviewed, said she spends a whopping $500 a month on various membership fees and social events. William Cabell, a young man, told Insider that he spends well over $200 dollars a month on a rock-climbing gym and a jiujitsu gym membership. William’s rationale: He wants to make friends.
Others took to social apps to find platonic companionship. Bumble BFF, for example, is an app, not for dating, but for facilitating friendships. That’s right: Young people are swiping right with no intention of hooking up. Rather, they just want to escape the sadness of their studio apartments.
While this may seem very bizarre, it shouldn’t surprise you. People need each other. If we are to continue living as “radical individualists,” to borrow a term from the late Amitai Etzioni, we will become lonelier and even unhealthier, as some studies have suggested.
That is why we must tap into the communitarian spirit that defined America for centuries. What is needed is not a top-down, paternalistic kind of approach, like what Senator Murphy proposed, but a bottom-up return to the America of Alexis de Tocqueville. One of small, voluntary associations and civic engagement.
While this may seem like a tall order, I think that if people want it, they will strive to acquire it. And from what I’m reading, they want it badly.