Is The Atlantic Lonely?

Friendship is all they can seem to talk about.

Nov 27, 2024

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the rapid normalization of how we talk about friendship.

I graduated college in 2010 back when OKCupid was the most popular dating app. Online dating hadn’t been normalized yet so most of my female friends refused to join the apps, or admit that they did so, because they felt they were “hot enough to get hit on at a bar.” It took a few years before everyone realized that it didn’t matter how hot you were, finding “the one” was very difficult.

I feel like we’re in a similar place for “the ones,” now — friendship, and if you don’t believe me look no further than The Atlantic, which seems to realize that in addition to Trump, one of their highest performing topics is friendship.

And it’s not just the Atlantic — Bon Appetit is getting into the game as well.

Talking about community and friendship seems to deeply resonate with people.

And it makes sense — loneliness takes 5-7 years off the average human lifespan and we’ve never been so disjointed from each other — as each generation becomes less religious, our multicultural and sexually enlightened predisposition has meant traditional institutions like Italian American clubs or single sex clubs like Elks or Moose are out of date. We’re trying to find a way, anyway, to connect with other people.