Perspective: Americans Alone
Laura Ingraham discusses how loneliness among Americans has increased over the years and the role social media has played in Ingraham’s Perspective.
Laura Ingraham talks about how, despite being constantly connected, social media has caused a decline in the amount of time Americans spend with each other and contributed to an epidemic of loneliness on “Ingraham’s Corner.”
LAURA INGRAM: Here’s an alarming statistic noted by economist Bryce Ward in The Washington Post. Americans spent 38% less time with their friends and extended family this past Thanksgiving weekend alone and over the past two years than they did a decade earlier. Even more troubling, trends toward social isolation were worsening even before the onset of COVID. Between 2014 and 2019, the amount of time we spend with friends decreased and the time spent alone increased more than after a pandemic began.
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(Muhammad Selim Karkutata/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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According to the Census Bureau’s American Time Use Study, between 2010 and 2013, the amount of time the average American spent with friends held steady at about 6.5 hours per week. Then in 2014, the time spent with friends began to decrease. So that led to the downfall personal communication? Well, here’s an educated guess. In 2012, Facebook went public and bought Instagram. And by 2014, social media had become a dominant force in American life. Five years later, by 2019, the average American spent just four hours a week with friends—a sharp 37% drop from 2014. Thus, the increasing use of social networks, as well as political polarization and pornography on the Internet, have contributed to the movement of Americans inward. Of course, the COVID restrictions have only exacerbated this growing trend of loneliness.
