Isolation and Community in Rural America

In 2026, America’s loneliness problem is no longer surprising news. It’s now been nearly three years since then U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy warned us about “Our Epidemic of Loneliness” and described the effects of “lacking social connection” as being as harmful to our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Of course, tech gurus and marketing professionals have been ready as ever to fill this relational vacuum with ready-made remedies like social media and the proliferation of chat bots. We may be alarmed by the growing penchant for chatbots to fill the gaps in people’s lives as friends and even in some cases spouses, but we are often tempted to see these trends as exceptions that a few folks might struggle with. It’s easy to ignore or rationalize our own loneliness until it is too late.