Comment by bokoharambe

I am fairly confident that people's agency is pretty low on the list of reasons why loneliness had reached epidemic proportions. There are very obvious cultural and geographic (and ultimately economic) factors at work that none of us as individuals ever really chose, but which have been decided for us. Anomie is not something that can be overcome through sheer force of will.

I know enough about my neighbors based on small glimpses of their lifestyle to know I will never want to or need to know them. I don't make friends with child abusers. And the reality is that those sorts of value conflicts are commonplace in contemporary American life.