“You can debate all sorts of things about how the texture of American life has changed. What you can't debate is the sheer, objective, existential fact that Americans are more alone than ever.”
Why are we spending more time alone than ever? More importantly, why do we seem to prefer this solitude? Journalist Derek Thompson unpacks the rise of what he calls the “Anti-Social Century.”
Each leap of technology hasn’t just made our lives easier, it’s made it lonelier. But this isn’t just about feeling isolated; it’s about how we’re choosing solitude, which in turn is rewiring our brains to prefer screens over people.
Chapters:
00:00 American Time Use Survey
00:55 The decline of socializing over 60 years
01:41 How the TV privatized leisure
02:38 How the smartphone privatized attention
03:12 The Anti-Social Century
04:40 Dopamine and smartphones
06:43 The emotional costs
07:22 Is AI replacing friendship?
09:37 What’s the antidote?
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About Derek Thompson:
Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic and host of the podcast Plain English. He is the author of Hit Makers and the co-author of Abundance alongside Ezra Klein, which explores the case for renewing the politics of plenty in the modern world.
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