Derek Thompson

And he made a point that I think is so, so important that as much as people like me want to focus on changes to the, let's call it internal world of screens and television and smartphones and dopamine dumping toward TikTok, a lot of this is about changes to the external world. It's about changes to the physical world.

And he made a point that I think is so, so important that as much as people like me want to focus on changes to the, let's call it internal world of screens and television and smartphones and dopamine dumping toward TikTok, a lot of this is about changes to the external world. It's about changes to the physical world.

And he made a point that I think is so, so important that as much as people like me want to focus on changes to the, let's call it internal world of screens and television and smartphones and dopamine dumping toward TikTok, a lot of this is about changes to the external world. It's about changes to the physical world.

This is a theme of the book that I wrote with Ezra to a certain extent, but America built a lot of social infrastructure in the first half of the 20th century, not only through the New Deal, but also up through the 1950s. We didn't just build roads and bridges. We built a lot of libraries. We built a lot of rec centers. We built a lot of community centers. We built physical places.

This is a theme of the book that I wrote with Ezra to a certain extent, but America built a lot of social infrastructure in the first half of the 20th century, not only through the New Deal, but also up through the 1950s. We didn't just build roads and bridges. We built a lot of libraries. We built a lot of rec centers. We built a lot of community centers. We built physical places.

This is a theme of the book that I wrote with Ezra to a certain extent, but America built a lot of social infrastructure in the first half of the 20th century, not only through the New Deal, but also up through the 1950s. We didn't just build roads and bridges. We built a lot of libraries. We built a lot of rec centers. We built a lot of community centers. We built physical places.

for people to go when they left their homes and weren't at work. And sometimes these are sometimes clichédly called third places, but it can be useful to think of that sort of third place outside of your one home and two office. We don't build these places. anymore, especially in low-income areas.

for people to go when they left their homes and weren't at work. And sometimes these are sometimes clichédly called third places, but it can be useful to think of that sort of third place outside of your one home and two office. We don't build these places. anymore, especially in low-income areas.

for people to go when they left their homes and weren't at work. And sometimes these are sometimes clichédly called third places, but it can be useful to think of that sort of third place outside of your one home and two office. We don't build these places. anymore, especially in low-income areas.

Eric's written a lovely book, Palaces for the People, about this precise phenomenon that America in particular has really gotten out of the habit of building public physical places for people to spend time in when they can't afford to spend time in multimillion-dollar homes and multimillion-dollar schools and multimillion-dollar something else.

Eric's written a lovely book, Palaces for the People, about this precise phenomenon that America in particular has really gotten out of the habit of building public physical places for people to spend time in when they can't afford to spend time in multimillion-dollar homes and multimillion-dollar schools and multimillion-dollar something else.

Eric's written a lovely book, Palaces for the People, about this precise phenomenon that America in particular has really gotten out of the habit of building public physical places for people to spend time in when they can't afford to spend time in multimillion-dollar homes and multimillion-dollar schools and multimillion-dollar something else.

And so it is really important to remember that these trends are worse for low income Americans, even though the fears of too much solitude sometimes seem like an upper middle class complaint. In a weird way, this is a lower middle and lower class problem first and foremost.

And so it is really important to remember that these trends are worse for low income Americans, even though the fears of too much solitude sometimes seem like an upper middle class complaint. In a weird way, this is a lower middle and lower class problem first and foremost.

And so it is really important to remember that these trends are worse for low income Americans, even though the fears of too much solitude sometimes seem like an upper middle class complaint. In a weird way, this is a lower middle and lower class problem first and foremost.

It is poor men and poor single men in particular, poor young single men in particular, who have the fastest growing rise in pure aloneness and solitude these days.

It is poor men and poor single men in particular, poor young single men in particular, who have the fastest growing rise in pure aloneness and solitude these days.

It is poor men and poor single men in particular, poor young single men in particular, who have the fastest growing rise in pure aloneness and solitude these days.

So Mark Dunkelman, who's a wonderful writer and researcher at Brown University, has this really lovely schema where he says that, ironically, this era of social isolation has actually deepened our relationships in two specific ways. In the so-called inner ring of family and friends, you know, you have—we were just talking about intensive parenting—

So Mark Dunkelman, who's a wonderful writer and researcher at Brown University, has this really lovely schema where he says that, ironically, this era of social isolation has actually deepened our relationships in two specific ways. In the so-called inner ring of family and friends, you know, you have—we were just talking about intensive parenting—