American social isolation worsened sharply between 1990 and 2021

Evidence

In 2021, the Survey Center on American Life published a study of friendship patterns in the United States. Packed into ten detailed pages, the report made for disheartening reading. Identifying what they called a “friendship recession,” researchers noted that Americans are increasingly lonely and isolated: 12 percent said that they did not have close friendships, compared to 3 percent in 1990, while nearly half claimed to have lost contact with friends during the COVID pandemic. — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 88

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence for this book’s core claim about hollowed-out social infrastructure; connects to the diagnosis section of Jäger’s argument. — connects to: American social trust dropped sharply even after accounting for rising education — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 56; Americans widely perceived community bonds weakening by the 1990s. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 59