The fireworks have been expended and the Fourth of July celebrations are over. Yet many Americans remain sad, lonely and isolated.
A report issued by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy last year finds that loneliness and isolation have become a major public health issue. Traveling around the country, Murthy heard from a variety of Americans who feel alone and isolated.
Among the typical responses he received were: “I have to shoulder all of life’s burdens by myself,” or “If I disappear tomorrow no one will even notice.”
This crisis began long before the COVID pandemic. As long ago as 1995, political scientist Robert Putnam published a provocative piece titled “Bowling Alone,” which found that participation in bowling leagues had dwindled, as more Americans literally decided to bowl alone. A nation of joiners was now a nation of loners.
And it wasn’t just bowling leagues. Membership in all types of civic organizations has declined.
Accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, George H. W. Bush declared that we are “a nation of community,” calling organizations such as the Knights of Columbus, the Grange, Hadassah, the Disabled American Veterans, Bible groups and others as “a brilliant diversity spreads like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.”
Today, that sky has considerably darkened.
Church attendance has also sharply declined. According to Gallup data, only 3 in 10 Americans regularly attend religious services. Mormons are the most religiously observant, with two-thirds posting regular attendance followed by Protestants at 44 percent, Muslims at 38 percent and Catholics at 33 percent.
The problems plaguing the Catholic Church highlight the problem. While the sex scandals that have dogged the clergy are certainly one reason for the empty pews and declining parish contributions, online Catholic groups such as Word on Fire and cable networks like EWTN have seen their pocketbooks burst.
And therein lies the paradox: The very nature of those organizations does not encourage the kinds of one-to-one relationships that once existed in parish halls and community events.
Many blame social media for the problem. The amount of time the average American spends on social media is two hours and twenty-three minutes per day. For teenagers, Gallup reports the average is nearly double at 4.8 hours per day.
Murthy has identified social media as a significant contributor to the symptoms of anxiety and depression that so many teens exhibit and is urging that warning labels be affixed to social media platforms, similar to the advisories placed on cigarette packages during the 1960s.
The anomie is especially pronounced among younger Americans. Too many schools lack the mental health resources their students need. According to a 2023 survey, 16 percent of students missed at least one day of school due to anxiety issues, while another 12 percent were either too sad or depressed to attend class.
In the House, Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) have introduced bipartisan legislation expanding access to mental health services in public schools.
The mental health crises many young people face are exhibited in their preferred musical tastes.
For example, the popular duo Twenty-One Pilots (of which I am a fan) has made a career of describing their difficulties in coping with mental health issues. Their lead singer, Tyler Joseph, has publicly struggled with anxiety and depression. And their latest best-selling album, “Clancy,” contains lyrics that advise their young, troubled fans, “When darkness rolls on you, push on through.”
What can be done? Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) has introduced legislation designed to combat the loneliness epidemic.
His National Strategy for Social Connection Act would create a White House Office of Social Connection Policy to work across federal agencies to create an improved social infrastructure and issue guidelines on sleep, nutrition and physical activity. The proposed law would also provide funding for the Centers for Disease Control to study the issues of social isolation and loneliness.
Murphy maintains that it’s time for “a real conversation” about the problem.
But while the government can call attention to the issue and try to facilitate means to address it, its power is limited. Individual self-reliance — namely, just “push on through” — isn’t enough either. More funding for mental health professionals and greater access to them would help. Likewise, removing the stigma of receiving treatment is important, since mental and physical well-being are so closely related.
Ultimately, what is needed is a greater recognition of the problem and an end to the isolation that too many Americans experience. Putting down the phone is a start. Having meaningful dinner table conversations would help. Joining a civic organization or church that puts you in contact with real people — not the so-called “relationships” people have on social media — would increase life expectancy, according to the film “Join or Die.”
Mental health doesn’t rank highly when people are asked about the country’s “most important problem.” But this public health crisis requires sustained attention from all quarters of society.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Murthy wondered, “Why is it that we have failed to respond to the harms of social media when they are no less urgent or widespread than those posed by unsafe cars, planes or food?”
He has made a good start at identifying the importance of mental health. It’s vital that Murthy has a surge of allies to help him follow through.
John Kenneth White is a professor emeritus at The Catholic University of America and author of “Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.”