#modern alienation

This takes a toll. Americans face a social pandemic of loneliness and isolation. The US surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, has declared it a crisis. His reports identify causes including the internet, smartphones, and social media. None of these was created with this agenda, but all of them have advanced it. Some of the “examples of harm” listed by Murthy include “technology that displaces in-person engagement, monopolizes our attention, reduces the quality of our interactions and even diminishes our self-esteem.”

The Covid-19 pandemic worsened isolation, but tech had already made redundant many of the ways we used to congregate and mingle, while often portraying those ventures into the world as dangerous, unpleasant, inefficient, and inconvenient. There is an underlying assumption that each of us aspires to be as productive as possible and that snipping away everything that hinders productivity is a good thing. This was the pitch made by many new companies in the 1990s, when online shopping and other digital financial transactions first became a big deal. The shift has reshaped cityscapes as well as psyches. The American Booksellers Association reported that, in 2021 alone, “the movement of dollars to Amazon and away from retailers displaced 136,000 shops occupying 1.1 billion square feet of traditional commercial space.” That’s a lot of local jobs and relationships both to places and people.

The small independent businesses that we’re losing sold goods, but they also gave away for free all sorts of things that are less tangible. There might be a cheaper way to buy shampoo or a better selection of envelopes online, but at an in-person store you can have a social interaction, even build a relationship with the proprietor and chat with other customers, or run into a friend or neighbor. That may happen in big chains such as Starbucks—but the employees aren’t likely to be around for long, the profit doesn’t go back into the community, and the design of the place is generic, not reflecting its locale. The exchanges between people who know one another are noncommodities these small businesses offer along with whatever is for sale.

The first sign was language. It arrived quietly, carrying authority with it, sounding reasonable enough that no one questioned its presence. The patient noticed it slipping into ordinary conversations—phrases meant for reports and meetings now used to describe feelings, outcomes, and people. A disagreement became a “process failure.” Grief was described as a “non-optimal response.” Decisions were…