Derek Thompson

If you ask high schoolers going back over the last 20 years, how anxious do you feel? How consistently depressed or anxious or sad do you feel? Those numbers are near all-time highs. So it's very, very hard to say for sure what people feel when they look into their phones. And I should absolutely grant the premise that a lot of time that people spend on their phones is social after a fashion.

If you ask high schoolers going back over the last 20 years, how anxious do you feel? How consistently depressed or anxious or sad do you feel? Those numbers are near all-time highs. So it's very, very hard to say for sure what people feel when they look into their phones. And I should absolutely grant the premise that a lot of time that people spend on their phones is social after a fashion.

You have to put all of this together, that the same generation that's spending a historic amount of time on their phone has fewer friends, spends less time with their friends, feels more depressed, feels more anxious. That tells me that the phone time we have that seems to be a substitute for face-to-face socializing is a poor, poor substitute.

You have to put all of this together, that the same generation that's spending a historic amount of time on their phone has fewer friends, spends less time with their friends, feels more depressed, feels more anxious. That tells me that the phone time we have that seems to be a substitute for face-to-face socializing is a poor, poor substitute.

You have to put all of this together, that the same generation that's spending a historic amount of time on their phone has fewer friends, spends less time with their friends, feels more depressed, feels more anxious. That tells me that the phone time we have that seems to be a substitute for face-to-face socializing is a poor, poor substitute.

It's a lovely thought and it's a spooky thought that many of these videos that we see that sometimes move us are moving us when we're alone and the person who filmed that emotional video is also alone, editing the video alone, tracking the comments alone. And so that rather than have a disclosure of emotional intimacy between two people that are there for each other, we rather have a broadcast

It's a lovely thought and it's a spooky thought that many of these videos that we see that sometimes move us are moving us when we're alone and the person who filmed that emotional video is also alone, editing the video alone, tracking the comments alone. And so that rather than have a disclosure of emotional intimacy between two people that are there for each other, we rather have a broadcast

It's a lovely thought and it's a spooky thought that many of these videos that we see that sometimes move us are moving us when we're alone and the person who filmed that emotional video is also alone, editing the video alone, tracking the comments alone. And so that rather than have a disclosure of emotional intimacy between two people that are there for each other, we rather have a broadcast

of emotional intimacy shared by one person who is alone with millions of other people who are also alone. That is an uncanny reality that we live in. And I should say, I thought when I came into this essay writing process, I felt like I had all the facts at my disposal.

of emotional intimacy shared by one person who is alone with millions of other people who are also alone. That is an uncanny reality that we live in. And I should say, I thought when I came into this essay writing process, I felt like I had all the facts at my disposal.

of emotional intimacy shared by one person who is alone with millions of other people who are also alone. That is an uncanny reality that we live in. And I should say, I thought when I came into this essay writing process, I felt like I had all the facts at my disposal.

I had poured over the Federal American Time Use Survey, and I could point to the numbers and say, face-to-face socializing has declined 20% for Americans in the last 20 years, and alone time is at the highest rate that we have going back to data in the 1960s. But what I didn't have were stories. And here's where my wife was actually very helpful to me, ironically, because she's on TikTok.

I had poured over the Federal American Time Use Survey, and I could point to the numbers and say, face-to-face socializing has declined 20% for Americans in the last 20 years, and alone time is at the highest rate that we have going back to data in the 1960s. But what I didn't have were stories. And here's where my wife was actually very helpful to me, ironically, because she's on TikTok.

I had poured over the Federal American Time Use Survey, and I could point to the numbers and say, face-to-face socializing has declined 20% for Americans in the last 20 years, and alone time is at the highest rate that we have going back to data in the 1960s. But what I didn't have were stories. And here's where my wife was actually very helpful to me, ironically, because she's on TikTok.

And she said, there's this trend or this theme on TikTok where young people will film celebrations and funny dances when a friend cancels plans. Now, I should back up and say, we all know that feeling of having the worst, most busy, exhausting week in the world, and it's Friday night, and we're exhausted and want to go to bed at 9.30.

And she said, there's this trend or this theme on TikTok where young people will film celebrations and funny dances when a friend cancels plans. Now, I should back up and say, we all know that feeling of having the worst, most busy, exhausting week in the world, and it's Friday night, and we're exhausted and want to go to bed at 9.30.

And she said, there's this trend or this theme on TikTok where young people will film celebrations and funny dances when a friend cancels plans. Now, I should back up and say, we all know that feeling of having the worst, most busy, exhausting week in the world, and it's Friday night, and we're exhausted and want to go to bed at 9.30.

And a friend calls at 8.30 for the 8.45 reservation that we had, and they say, I'm sorry, I have to cancel. And we celebrate internally. I understand that feeling. I'm not a monster. I'm not a robot. However, Put the following facts together. The most socially isolated generation in recorded history has a trend of filming celebrations of when their friends cancel plans. That's a strange fact.

And a friend calls at 8.30 for the 8.45 reservation that we had, and they say, I'm sorry, I have to cancel. And we celebrate internally. I understand that feeling. I'm not a monster. I'm not a robot. However, Put the following facts together. The most socially isolated generation in recorded history has a trend of filming celebrations of when their friends cancel plans. That's a strange fact.

And a friend calls at 8.30 for the 8.45 reservation that we had, and they say, I'm sorry, I have to cancel. And we celebrate internally. I understand that feeling. I'm not a monster. I'm not a robot. However, Put the following facts together. The most socially isolated generation in recorded history has a trend of filming celebrations of when their friends cancel plans. That's a strange fact.