“Few windows with lights on in an office building at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Jan. 6. Germany has extended its coronavirus lockdown until the end of the month. (Filip Singer/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)“

by Noreena Herz

“Lots of people are lonely these days. Months of stay-at-home orders and other limits on face-to-face contact are taking their toll. But even before the pandemic introduced us to terms like “social distancing,” loneliness was a defining condition of the 21st century: More than a fifth of U.S. adults said in a 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation survey that they ‘often’ or ‘always’ felt lonely, lacking in companionship, left out or isolated. Britain even appointed a minister for loneliness three years ago to confront the problem. Why did we become so lonely? Who is most afflicted? And what harms does it cause? Misconceptions persist around each of these questions; here are five of the most common.