Lonely in New York City, as shot by the legendary street photographer Weegee in 1946. While social isolation isn’t new, many experts believe that modern life has made it worse.
Photographer: Weegee (Arthur Fellig)/International Center of Photography/Getty Images
City Life Is Too Lonely. Urban Planning Can Help.
The loneliness epidemic that many Americans are experiencing is exacerbated by the way communities are built, experts say. But design fixes could be close at hand.
On a recent afternoon stroll though Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Place, British artist Andy Field surveyed his surroundings. There were lots of people out enjoying the historic park, a quartet of leafy squares full of statuary and fountains surrounded by some of the city’s grandest older homes. But most of these parkgoers were not interacting with each other: Lone people sat on benches, reading and scrolling through their phones.
Field’s latest book, Encounterism: The Neglected Joys of Being In Person, is full of essays touting the benefits of everyday, mundane encounters with strangers, and examining the barriers that prevent these kinds of interactions. For many people, he explained, the discomfort surrounding meeting strangers comes from not knowing what the other person’s intentions are. But there are things that can help people lower their guard by redirecting each other’s focus, such as shared activities — or a dog.