Working Alone

I spend a good deal of time on Zoom. Perhaps you do as well? The necessity of such isolation has ended as we have learned to “live” with Covid, but our tendency to prefer the isolation of our screens has not. Granted, we were moving towards a more isolated life before the pandemic hit, but it certainly heightened our awareness and desire for solitude. Vivek Murthy, the previous U.S. Surgeon General, highlighted the impact that loneliness is having on us but perhaps loneliness is a symptom of something more fundamental. We are spending more time by ourselves by choice, preferring to retreat into the dopamine-fueled environment of our screens. In doing so, we are spending less time engaging face-to-face with others.

A February 2025 cover story in The Atlantic, by Derek Thompson, explored this shift towards more solitude and our preference for it. I’d like to explore this article in some detail so we’re going to consider a new observation each day this week. The article, The Anti-Social Century, may be simply an observation of a natural societal shift in behavior. Or, perhaps, it’s a prescription for addressing many of the concerns we worry about as we drift off to sleep each night.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to chime in as we explore this topic. I wonder, are you involved in any community groups? Do you see friends regularly? Do you prefer going out to dinner or picking up take away? And, perhaps more appropriately, do you prefer working solo and online, or collaborating with others in person?

P.S. If you read this and you’re close, lets go grab coffee and chat!