Loneliness and Me (opens in new tab)

The flaw is that it's based on self-reporting. So, more people in the US/UK will self-identify as lonely, whereas in Japan, it might be kind of embarrassing to admit to that, or people might not tend to think of themselves that way?

Japan (at least in major cities) seems to have a culture of insane overtime that creates loneliness issues. No time for friends or dating. The US might be headed in the same direction because rents in some large cities are rising fast, and some people have no choice but to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

We're also living in a time where love relationships are seen as having an expiration date, as being disposable. The rise of Tinder, it seems like we're applying consumerism to relationships. We have a short attention span and we don't care for close connections. Just my opinion, but I don't think this is going to do good things for the world.

From personal observations of people around me and reading a bunch of random articles on that topic in the past (cannot be bothered to find sources now, so all I am about to say can just be counted as anecdata), it isn't true that the US and UK have even more loneliness, but it is true that it is trending upwards and would eventually get to the same level if it keeps going.

Thanks, I thought this was a good article.

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As the article explains whether loneliness is a real problem for you depends on your personality.

Some people relish time alone and would rather people not bother them at all. Some people fear spending even a single day alone.

For most people it's a mixed bag, some days they'd rather be alone and cancel their plans. Other days they can't wait to go out with friends.