R. David Lankes, the Virginia and Charles Bowden Professor of Librarianship at the University of Texas at Austin and co-host of the Libraries Lead podcast, recently published his latest book, Triptych: Death, AI, and Librarianship, in association with Library Journal. The following excerpt by Jain Orr, PhD Student at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information, examines the relationship between loneliness and libraries, questioning the extent to which libraries can function as social infrastructure to address feelings of isolation.

In 2022 the European Commission's Joint Research Centre launched the Monitoring Loneliness in Europe project to collect data on the prevalence of loneliness in Europe¹. Likewise, in 2023, the United States Surgeon General issued an advisory entitled Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation². Despite recent attention by governments and researchers, a closer look at loneliness reveals that it is far more slippery of a concept than at first glance. Library workers seeking to address loneliness would benefit from a deeper understanding of the facts. This paper is the result of research that began with the question "how can libraries act as social infrastructure to help address the loneliness epidemic?" but quickly morphed into a deeper, more nuanced understanding of what loneliness is, who is lonely, when are they lonely, and is the so-called loneliness epidemic real or a moral panic?

What is Loneliness?

The word "loneliness" has its own cultural history. In The Biography of Loneliness, historian Bound describes that the need to create the word "loneliness" around the 16th century, reflected a desire to communicate a specific emotional experience created when the material conditions shaping our social lives led to specific emotional needs not being met at a chronic and persistent level. Scholars who study loneliness agree that it is directly tied to individualistic alienation arising in various forms, in particular, secularism, capitalism, medicine and science, all coinciding with the proliferation of enlightenment ideas³.

Cacioppo and Patrick describe loneliness as a type of social and emotional pain that compels us to tend to our social relationships. At its core, loneliness is a prosocial signal that tells us we should tend to our social connections in much the same way that thirst tells us to drink water, and hunger tells us to eat⁴. The important thing to keep in mind is that loneliness is a subjective gap between an individual's need for social connection and their fulfillment of that need. This is not the same as social isolation. Loneliness is a subjective state of mind, a feeling that one lacks meaningful emotional relationships and/or social support networks (such as with colleagues or neighbors)⁵.

It's also important to recognize that there are different types of loneliness, and not all the types need "fixing" per se. Svendsen points out in A Philosophy of Loneliness that loneliness is an emotion that ebbs and flows into a person's life as they undergo major transitions that disrupt their social networks. Transient loneliness comes when one starts at a new school, moves to a new town, has a baby, gets divorced, deals with chronic illness, and/or retires. Loneliness of this type is a natural consequence of ordinary social disruptions. A further complicating fact is that lonely versus non-lonely individuals tend to remain so over the course of their lifetime despite the ups and downs of life, speaking to the influence of personality and temperament on the prevalence of feelings of loneliness⁶.

Is Loneliness an Epidemic?

While loneliness feels like a very "base" human emotion, loneliness is having a moment right now in popular and academic discourse. Figure 1 shows how research articles with the word "loneliness" in the title have seen a sharp increase, even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figure 1: Number of research articles with 'loneliness' in the title by year and field. Data derived from webofscience.org (17.03.2021)7

As IJzerman argues, use of words like "epidemic" give the impression that loneliness is some sort of contagious and spreading disease that is on the rise, when in fact there is very little data available to make the case that loneliness (the feeling) is increasing in either prevalence or severity. Although time-use studies indicate that time spent alone, sometimes described as "social isolation" does seem to be increasing, this is often falsely conflated with loneliness⁸. Put simply, solitude and loneliness are not the same thing. Figure 1 suggests that concern over loneliness, rather than loneliness itself, is the real epidemic. IJzerman isn't the only one calling the notion of a loneliness epidemic into question^9,10,11,12 and he muses on the possibility that it is a type of technology panic. Despite these issues, it is much easier to find information that assumes the loneliness epidemic is indeed an actual phenomenon. Discrimination (and not technology use) is the most likely predictor of higher rates of loneliness, and as such, framing loneliness as a public health issue by using language like "epidemic" obscures the deeper aspects of economic and social responsibility required to adequately address the issue¹³.

Who is Lonely?

As mentioned earlier, at the individual level loneliness is typically experienced as a transient emotion; a phase most often related to natural changes in life. However, at the societal level, and in the broadest sense, higher rates of loneliness disproportionately impact those who, for whatever reason, are not participating in the paid workforce such as youth, new moms, stay at home parents, disabled/chronically ill, and newly retired people. In fact, the EU Loneliness survey found that demographically speaking, being a member of a marginalized group (such as LGBTQIA+ or a new migrant) puts one at higher risk of experiencing loneliness.

Feminist critics have characterized the "male loneliness epidemic" as the "male entitlement epidemic," citing the widely observed phenomenon in the US that a man not in a relationship is a man alone¹⁴. The idea of "mankeeping" was popularized by a 2021 SNL skit starring Pete Davidson called "Man Park." Man Park is like a dog park, but for men in relationships so they can have someone else to talk to other than their girlfriends or wives. The skit is half right. A consistent finding among most loneliness studies is that women report more and higher levels of loneliness than men while also consistently reporting more robust social support networks (or less social isolation) than men. Again, this complicates the assumed relationship between quantifiable social connections and feelings of loneliness¹⁵.

Library Response to Loneliness

Loneliness, while unpleasant, is a necessary part of growth the way that pain is often associated with transformation. In such cases, loneliness is like hunger in that it motivates us to shore up our needs. It is a signal to build or rebuild our social networks. It is the type of problem that sorts itself out. In such cases, libraries are one of many outlets that can be employed, and we needn't do anything much different. We need only continue to survive and thrive as institutions to remain available to hold space where those experiencing transient loneliness can begin the hard work, often painful, but necessary, of introspection and rebuilding. Suffering of this sort is a necessary part of the good life; this type of pain doesn't require fixing.

Pointing out that loneliness is not an epidemic is not the same as saying that loneliness is not a problem. Although this paper is not intended to be a how-to or a tool kit, there are a few details about loneliness that are worth consideration as they relate to the role of the library, in particular, to the extent that groups (as opposed to individuals) can be considered. Library services or programming that aims to provide a neighborhood-level intervention or opportunity for those "lonely people out there" is well-intentioned and ultimately should be mindful that they do not exclude the populations that are more vulnerable to loneliness. In a general sense, they are people who have in common that they are (1) undergoing major life transitions and/or (2) are not actively engaged in the workforce: new parents, newly divorced, new to the city/country, no longer in the workforce either due to parenting or retirement. Programs that consider the unique circumstances of these groups is wise if one were to go that route.

Posing the question "should libraries do anything to help individual loneliness?" to some extent implies that libraries are not already doing anything to help individuals with loneliness. Whether we like it or not, libraries are already serving as social infrastructure to help people cope with loneliness. Instead, I believe that to the extent that libraries exist, they already do as much as can be done. What I argue here is that to the extent that we can help people cope with or move through their feelings of loneliness, maybe we already do? Creating the conditions for social connection is the proverbial bringing a horse to water: it is a necessary but not sufficient effort to combat loneliness.

Triptych: Death, AI, and Librarianship is available now in print and ebook.