Lonely Century, The, Hertz, Noreena

Disconnection is the defining trait of the twenty-first century, says bestselling author and thought leader Noreena Hertz. Social isolation is at unprecedented levels across ages, genders, and income brackets. Nearly half of adults in the U.S. report feeling lonely, and over twenty percent of millennials say they have no friends at all.

While its tempting to blame our addiction to our screens, technology is only a small part of the story. All around us, the fabric of community--once the antidote to loneliness--is unraveling, due to the dismantling of civic institutions, the radical reorganization of the workplace, mass urban migration, social media culture, and decades of neoliberal policies that place individual freedom above the collective good.

This is not just a mental health crisis. Loneliness increases our risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia, and other life-threatening diseases. Statistically, its as bad for us as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. Its also an economic crisis, costing over $6.7 billion annually. And its a political one, as alienation and marginalization fuel anger and extremism in the U.S. and all over the world.

In The Lonely Century, readers accompany Hertz to the front lines of the war on loneliness as she rents a friend in Manhattan, is interviewed for a job in London by a machine, attends a how to read a face class at an Ivy League university, encounters nursing home residents in Japan who knit bonnets for their robot caregivers, and more.