Loneliness Hits MEN Hard Emotionally & Mentally: How to Become Active Again
Loneliness Hits MEN Hard Emotionally & Mentally: How to Become Active Again
Loneliness Hits Men Harder Than Women
Are Men Really Lonelier Than Women?
Understanding the Numbers Behind Male Loneliness
The Role of Society and Social Expectations
Technology: The Double-Edged Sword
Breaking the Cycle: Practical Steps to Build Connections
The Bigger Picture: It’s Not Just About Men
Loneliness has become an undesirable but significant issue in today’s society, and while men are often highlighted as facing a "loneliness," the problem is much broader. Surveys reveal that men, on average, have fewer close friendships than women, and this trend has worsened over the past two decades. However, loneliness is not exclusive to men—it affects people across all demographics. Women, retirees, young adults, and members of the LGBTQ+ community also report high levels of isolation.
The causes of loneliness are complex. Societal expectations often discourage men from expressing emotions, while technology has replaced face-to-face connections with shallow online interactions. The result is a growing sense of disconnection in an increasingly digital world.
Being Together Eliminates Loneliness
To combat loneliness, it’s crucial to take practical steps. Be vulnerable—sharing struggles and emotions can deepen relationships. Prioritize in-person interactions, like meeting friends for coffee or hosting gatherings. Use technology to enhance, not replace, real-world connections.
Loneliness is a universal issue, but it’s not insurmountable. By understanding its causes and making a conscious effort to connect, we can all build stronger, healthier relationships.
There are articles and posts alluding to it everywhere lately. Search the internet, and you’ll find lots of supporting surveys, though they don’t tell a clear story. A 2021 survey revealed that men have, on average, 50% fewer close friendships than women — and the number of close male friendships has plummeted over the last 20 years. Scott Galloway (podcast host, marketing professor, and masculinity pundit) writes on Medium about the “crisis of underemployment and under-socialization” young men are facing. Slightly more men than women (57% to 54%) under the age of 24 live with their parents today. Men under 30 are more likely to be single than women (maybe because women are dating above their age bracket?). A third of men haven’t had sex in the last year (Galloway has promoted this stat), but in truth, everyone is having less sex than they did a decade ago (men, women, old, young… everyone). At the same time, research is pretty clear that we’re all lonelier today than we were a decade ago. A Gallup survey last year discovered that men and women are equally lonely. Eileen Graham, associate professor of social sciences at Northwestern University, analyzed nine longitudinal studies of loneliness and found that women self-report being lonely more than men. To me, the conversation around a so-called “male loneliness epidemic” conflates multiple things: self-reported loneliness (a subjective experience, equally felt across all genders), singledom (which is not the same thing as loneliness), and celibacy (also not the same thing as loneliness). What the conversation about men seems to overlook is the fact that everyone, no matter how old you are or how you identify, is more isolated than they were a decade ago. It’s not just a male loneliness epidemic. It’s a retiree loneliness epidemic, a queer loneliness epidemic, an everyone-is-staring-at-their-phones-on-the-couch epidemic. To un-isolate ourselves, we have to become more aware of who we are when we’re online.