The Lonely Century by Noreena Hertz

Chapter 2: Loneliness kills

• Some elderly in Japan are purposefully committing petty crimes to get sent to prison, so that they can socialize with other inmates and be taken care of
• Lonely people are 30% more likely to develop heart disease, 64% more likely to develop dementia, and 30% more likely to die prematurely
• Being lonely prolongs cortisol production, leading to inflammation and reduced defence against illness
• The stress response triggered by loneliness is like driving a car in first gear: at first, it’s the most efficient way to get you moving, but staying in first gear for your entire journey puts your engine through more wear and tear. A car isn’t designed to stay in first gear, and your body isn’t designed to be stay lonely

  Chapter 3: The lonely mouse

• The longer that lab mice are isolated, the more aggressive they are to newcomers
• Lonely people tend to have a harder time empathizing with others. They have less brain activity in the parts of the brain associated with empathy, and more activity in alertness processes. Rather than seeing things from the affected persons point of view, their response operates in self-preservation mode and scans their surroundings for threats
• The socially and economically marginalized are turning out in disproportionally high numbers for parties at the political extremes, under promises that they are seen and heard
• Neoliberal capitalism and deindustrialization took an asymmetric economic toll, with lower-skilled men among those who felt they were suffering most—the target market for right wing populists
• To manage the decaying and less secure importance of their identities (class, employment, religion), those who feel left behind, excluded, or unimportant to will likely gravitate towards nationality, ethnicity, language and gender as attractive sources for meaning and self-esteem
• Right wing populists exploit the lonely brain, which has lesser capacity to feel empathy, rev up the anxiety and insecurity of their followers and manipulate ethnic and religious differences to garner support
• Lonely people (those socially excluded or ostracized) are more likely to see threats, and their environments as frightening and hostile (“see snakes instead of sticks”), thus they latch on to conspiracy theories—which are commonly promulgated by far-right populists
• Those who expressed the most extreme anti-immigrant views are distinguished not by basic demographics (e.g., gender or age) but by financial insecurity, social isolation, and lack of trust in fellow citizens/government

  Chapter 4: The solitary city

• The rise in paid parasocial relationships, in which you can donate to be recognized (e.g., Mukbangs have been rising in popularity as lonely people watch and eat alongside the mukbangers) requires less effort in order to satisfy social cravings. However, it encourages lack of effort, and we get less practice of skills that are required to build meaningful friendships and community. Humans will gravitate towards paths requiring the least effort, hence the rise in unidirectional, donor relationships
• Ironically, large urban centres are lonelier for inhabitants than smaller rural centres. The hustle and bustle and sheer population of the cities makes it difficult for people to connect with each other

  Chapter 5: The contactless age

• Services have become more contactless, as limiting human labor translates to more profit. Removing human interaction can be convenient, and most people find it so; however, it removes opportunities for social interaction
• Cities over the years have been implementing antisocial measures to dissuade loitering, homeless sleeping, etc. via hostile architecture. Examples include uncomfortable benches, mosquitoes (high pitched noises) and pink lights (emphasize blemishes) to dissuade children
• Class segregation in cities like London and Vancouver has been seen by way of private playgrounds that are closed off to poorer regions of a district. Division this early on in child development will only exacerbate social division

  Chapter 6: Our screens, ourselves

• Landmark studies have shown that reducing social media use to 10 minutes per day per major platform results in a significant reduction in loneliness. Those who deleted Facebook didn’t fill that void with another platform but rather spent more time socializing in person. In terms of subjective well-being, deleting Facebook was up to 40% as effective as therapy
• There has been a 42% increase in plastic surgeons having at least one patient bringing in a photoshopped selfie and asking them to recreate it, with 55% of plastic surgeons reporting this occurrence

  Chapter 7: Alone at the office

• Global average of office workers reporting feeling lonely at work is 40%. Over 50% in China, 60% in the UK, 54% of GenZ feel emotionally distant from their colleagues
• People who don’t have a friend at work are 7X more likely to disengage with their job emotionally and intellectually
• Open office plans have been detrimental in some regards. Noise disruptions reduces efficiency by occupying neural real estate, and the lack of privacy keeps people from being authentic and putting on a charade, which can be exhausting
• Head of HR at Google found optimal work from home time to be around 1.5 days a week. Setting up institutionalized regular and structured opportunities for employees to meet up and socialize in person is important as well (in office pizza Thursdays, conferences, etc.). This is where bonds and community are created, and where moments of serendipity arise
• Shared lunch times increase team cohesion, from firefighters to call centre employees, those who ate together performed better

  Chapter 8: The digital whip

• HireVue digital screenings offer companies a means to scale recruiting without the need to hire human interviewers. The HireVue algorithms scan for desirable traits of past successful candidates—vocal patterns (uhms and ahs) and how inviting your face is, among others. The issue with this is that some people have speech impediments, and some cultures smile less; as such, these algorithms impart a bias that could discriminate. Human interviewers aren’t immune to these biases; however, the online screening is generic, impersonal, and offers no natural feedback throughout the process
• A high school English teacher in West Virginia had to download a workplace wellness app, Go365, as their employer wanted to reduce their health insurance costs. The app monitored their exercise and health, granting points for good behaviours such as steps and charging fines (up to $500) for failing to accrue enough wellness points
• The gig economy rating systems alienate workers (think black mirror episode with public rating systems). In onboarding, workers are told to avoid talking about religion, politics, or sports in case the rider in the back is offended. You surely can’t risk offending someone as it can affect your rating
• It’s also reductionist - reducing someone to a number is dehumanizing. It is too coarse a metric, there’s no way of knowing whether a rating is genuine or because someone was having a bad day
• People are also prone to anchoring someone’s rating on the published rating already attributed to them. If someone has a low score, a rater will likely provide a low score regardless of outcome
• The greater the level of automation exposure in an area, the greater the probability that the people located there would vote for a nationalist or far-right party Chapter 9: Love, sex, and robots
• A brief caress triggers a flurry of activity in the vagus nerve, which slows down heart rate, quells anxiety, and releases oxytocin
• Japan has the worlds oldest population, 25% of its citizens are older than 65, by 2050 this is expected to increase to 50%. 15% of elderly Japanese men go 2 weeks without speaking to a soul, 33% feel that they have no one to turn to for simple help. The number of elderly people living with one of their children dropped by 50% in the past two decades, even as elderly populations increased
• 60% of Japanese 18-34 year old’s are not in any sort of romantic relationship, a 20% increase from 2005

  Chapter 10: The loneliness economy

• Co-living/co-working spaces have risen in popularity over the years, a commercial response to alleviate loneliness. These spaces, however, want to sell the benefits of living or working in close proximity with others, but with none of the social commitment (i.e., hard work) that building a community requires
• Domestic tasks are done by staff; therefore, no delegating of tasks among members needs to be done, encouraging the neoliberal “me” stance rather than a “we” stance. If the co-living company organizes everything for you, providing free ale and treats, your obligation to commit to that community is likely weakened
• These co-living arrangements that boast private grocery stores, bars, and so on are segregated from the actual local community. Requiring a premium price to get in, only the privileged have access to this loneliness “cure” and it separates them from the actually local community in the process

  Chapter 11: Coming together in a world that’s pulling apart

• The political approaches to loneliness fall into two camps at the extremes. The right cast blame on the breakdown of the traditional family, with declining church attendance and excessive welfare that avoids personal responsibility and responsibility towards others. The left depicts individuals as victims of circumstance, giving them a free pass, and stress that the state should be responsible for fixing community and healing social ills