> no one is getting rich selling anti-loneliness pills (yet)<p>Annual sales of antidepressants in North America are about $8 billion.
Interesting factoid:<p>> Over and over again, studies[0] find that people think that their past conversations went worse than they actually did and that future conversations will go worse than they actually do. But when you just make people talk to each other, they end up having a nice time and feeling more confident[1] about their conversational abilities.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15298868.2020.1816568" rel="nofollow">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15298868.2020.18...</a><p>[1]: <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103122000750" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002210312...</a>
I think it's a side-effect of certain facets of intelligence, mistrained or unrestrained:<p>Repeatedly processing memory, recursively calling the same function without a limit or exit condition :)
This "loneliness" part of this article is confusing to me.<p>> People are more alone than ever, but they’re not feeling much lonelier than they used to. So maybe all this extra solitude is...fine?<p>Okay but the data examined for "more alone" is US data with unclear age range (most likely adults). But the data examined for "not feeling much lonelier" is UK data and US school teenager data. I feel like there's a massive blind spot with the fact there's no US adult data...?
> <i>All of this can be prevented with a few tablespoons of lemon juice, but people suffering from scurvy do not develop a hankering for citrus. They will suffer and wither and collapse and never even ask for a grapefruit.</i><p>Funny, I absolutely <i>do</i> develop a hankering for citrus whenever my body needs vitamin C. After a workout, and after getting sun at the beach, or just whenever I've gone a couple days without getting enough vitamin C, I absolutely develop a sudden craving for oranges/grapefruit/pineapple/orange juice/Emergen-C. And it doesn't go away until I have enough.<p>I assume that this is a kind of learned association, that you can recognize the feeling of vitamin C depletion and your body quickly connects that that goes away when you eat certain foods.<p>But my body <i>absolutely</i> tells me when I need vitamin C. And whether it's at a level of "it would be a nice idea to have some now" or "you need a LOT more vitamin C RIGHT NOW".
Weird post. I like the way it's written, there are lots of very interesting links, and the images are quite unique. But it goes on and on, and the conclusion is lacking.<p>I'd enjoy it for fun, to pass the time, to read a dozen follow-up articles. But as a one-off post to learn and inform myself? Ugh.<p>Unrelated, but two of the many links have ChatGPT referals. I'm not sure what to think of it. I guess it's fine?
I'd be interested in a good article that questioned the loneliness epidemic narrative, but this isn't it.
If you think that, at least explain why. What is the point of this comment except to make you feel superior by recycling some snark?
I've only heard of "loneliness epidemic" in terms of "<i>male</i> loneliness epidemic" and it's framed entirely around young men not getting the attention they expect from women.<p>The male loneliness epidemic is also known as the growth of incel circles and the influence of supposedly masculine influencers who will do <i>literally</i> anything but treat women both as equals and with respect. And the way these groups work is that they need to keep their membership up, so it's in their interest to keep you away from women by turning you against them.<p>Whatever narrative there is about young men being left behind by progressiveness, it is a big lie over a smaller truth (the system fails everyone and now it is sometimes failing young white men, in terms of education). Not so different to the great replacement theory I would imagine, but based on gender not race/religion.
It’s an interesting point made in about 10X the words it should have taken.<p>It’s a major issue I have with nonfiction in general though. Most of the words are superfluous. Unlike fiction it’s not prose-poetry or storytelling art either, just dry filler.
I love being alone. I'm never lonely. Maybe i'm crazy.
> no one is getting rich selling anti-loneliness pills (yet)<p>There is already an ecosystem of for-profit social events in European cities (and probably elsewhere) profiting off people's desire to meet up with other human beings when social opportunies have shrunk. Once has seen this on e.g. Meetup.com or Facebook for years now, where bot profiles are used to swell event-signup numbers so people think they will meet more people. Indeed, with the enshittification of Meetup, the only forces that prosper on that site are for-profit ones.
> no one is getting rich selling anti-loneliness pills (yet)<p>Social media, dating apps, even andrew tate was doing well till some point.
I don't know much about Andrew Tate (what I've heard suggest I don't even want to look him up, but maybe I should)<p>For Social Media and dating apps - both ran into similar problems: they are a small part of the means. Facebook only have 5-10 minutes of real friend content per day. Dating apps can perhaps fill more time per day - but success means you "find someone" and close your account never to return. If you want to get rich you need to find some way to extend the time people spend on your platform - and that means something other than your premise. Facebook is filled with garbage. Any mildly successful dating app will be bought out by a big player because that app is taking away from the big player.
> There is already an ecosystem of for-profit social events in European cities (and probably elsewhere) profiting off people's desire to meet up with other human beings when social opportunies have shrunk.<p>They're called nightclubs and bars lol trust HN to be so insulated from the wider world
The scurvy part definitely tracks. So many developers live on ramen and energy drinks; basic nutrients become an afterthought.
He makes good points on statistics but at the base of all of the data, it's just surveys... I know it's not feasible to survey everyone all the time, but I wouldn't make any conclusions off such data
> no one is getting rich selling anti-loneliness pills (yet)<p>No but those who claim to have observed a worrying phenomenon will be interviewed by the press, invited to conferences, listened to by politicians, and will be first in line to receive further grants to study the worrying phenomenon. It's not corruption, it's just normal gratification for your hard work and a feeling of being relevant. Better than studying things and having to report on the absence of any finding.
Do people not like juice? How do you get scurvy in 2026?
The article is talking about "social scurvy", which they use as a metaphor for people not realising they need to get out of the house and meet up with other people every now and then.
Not the point of the post. Just a clickbaity-ish comparison to reel you in.
In the world of protein low carb pop tarts juice is poison.
"There is no epidemic of loneliness" say the people who don't know what loneliness is, ≈ "Just stop being so depressed!"<p>What's undeniable is the disgusting monetization (and control) of connecting people.
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