We live in an age where we have better tools for communication and connection than ever before, and yet we are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic.
In 2025, a World Health Organization report identified that 1 in 6 people globally are lonely. The report defined loneliness as “the painful feeling that arises from a gap between desired and actual social connections.” Perhaps, most strikingly, the age bracket that had the highest levels of loneliness was 13–29-year-olds.
Social isolation can strike at any age and impacts people of all social statuses, with the stigma of it often worsening the problem. As Olivia Laing wrote earlier this year, to mark the tenth anniversary of The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone: “The pain was intensified, as a broken leg or even a broken heart would not have been, by the fact that my loneliness felt inadmissible, a thing that could not be said for fear of repelling other people.”
Loneliness shouldn’t be something to be ashamed of, but rather a set of circumstances to be discussed and explored, so that solutions to this modern quandary may be found.
We would like to hear your stories of loneliness: how and when it has affected your life, why you think it happened, what it meant to you, how you have made changes to address it. We will then select several people to interview for an article for Saturday magazine. You are welcome to be anonymous if you prefer.
Please respond in the form below.