When Harvard professor Robert Putnam published his book Bowling Alone in 2000, smartphones didn’t exist. But already social life as we knew it was orienting itself toward screens and away from parent-teacher associations, civic groups, religious organizations and even bowling clubs. Back then it was television that absorbed our attention. Now, the median time American adults spend staring at smartphones is six hours per day.
The loneliness that stems from phone addiction — connections between the two phenomena have been increasingly documented by longitudinal studies — has made us unable to focus and it has even polarized society. The mental health detriments are also becoming clear, ranging from depression and anxiety to difficulty concentrating. But less time has been spent studying how loneliness has changed the ways in which we grieve.
