Gen Z is the loneliest generation.
It’s almost a cliché, but the stats don’t lie. We spend more time alone, have fewer friends, and suffer higher rates of anxiety and depression than any generation in recent memory.
Americans reduced their average hours of face-to-face socialization by almost 25 percent from 2003 to 2024, according to the latest data from the American Time Use Survey. For Americans ages 15 to 24, that time reduced by almost 40 percent. Only 32 percent of those younger than 30 report having five or more close friends, according to a 2023 Pew Research report, and about 67 percent of Gen Z reports feeling lonely, according to a recent Cigna survey.
Meanwhile, our Caroline Downey writes, the gender partisan gap has become a chasm as young men and women find themselves at opposite political extremes. Dating, sex, and marriage are at an all-time low.
We can decry the social-media platforms, divisive political movements, and hectic schedules keeping us apart — or we can do something about our self-absorbed isolation.
Only an average of 4 percent of Americans attended or hosted a social event on any given weekend or holiday in 2024. Ellen Cushing of The Atlantic, writing in January, responded to the national loneliness crisis with a simple solution: Throw more parties.
What if there were a way to smush all your friends together in one place — maybe one with drinks and snacks and chairs? What if you could see your work friends and your childhood friends and the people you’ve chatted amiably with at school drop-off all at once instead of scheduling several different dates? What if you could introduce your pals and set them loose to flirt with one another, no apps required? What if you could create your own Elks Lodge, even for just a night?
I’m being annoying, obviously — there is a way! It’s parties, and we need more of them.
On a small scale, this is the answer to both problems.
Hosting takes effort, but there is no better way to form friendships with the people with whom you share fragments of your everyday life. Mixing friend groups and welcoming plus ones yields bigger social circles and tighter bonds.
My parents met at a dinner party hosted by a mutual friend. Now, I watch my friends look at a frat boy’s Hinge profile for five and a half seconds before swiping to the next option: “He’s a liberal, next,” or, “Oh, he’s 5’7”.”
It’s hard to write people off so quickly when you’re sitting across a dinner table from them, standing in a crowded kitchen, or competing in cornhole. Young men and women may find more common ground — or at least get to know each other better — if they actually talk to each other in a group setting, maybe a few drinks in.
Before the summer is out, host a party. It doesn’t have to be complicated. One of the best parties I’ve attended recently was a backyard birthday celebration for a girl I had met two weeks earlier. So set aside a Saturday, send out a Partiful text blast, and tell your friends and coworkers to bring their signature drinks.