It’s OK for Men to Talk About Loneliness

Americans are lonely. All Americans are experiencing record levels of isolation and loneliness, but to read the headlines, you might think it’s only men who are suffering. In addition to this current focus on male loneliness is a certain amount of petulance about it. I see too many essays entitled “Men Are Lonely and Nobody Cares” or something similar and to be honest, it reminds me of a toddler throwing a tantrum. Meanwhile, if you search Men and Loneliness you’ll actually see that most major news outlets have written sympathetic stories about this in the past few years. Everybody from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/19/opinion/male-loneliness.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> to <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/how-loneliness-is-killing-men" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">BBC Science Focus</a> has offered their take as well as thoughts on what can be done about it. <a href="https://www.acalltomen.org/why-men-are-primed-for-loneliness/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">A Call to Men</a> and <a href="https://www.rootsofloneliness.com/male-loneliness" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The Roots of Loneliness Project</a> (to name just a few) have written sympathetic pieces. Lots of people care about men and loneliness.  <a href="https://medium.com/u/6f535c3fd251?source=post_page-----7a6287bf588f--------------------------------" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Mark Greene</a>  has been <a href="https://medium.com/@remakingmanhood/the-terrible-price-of-our-epidemic-of-male-loneliness-5be6463fd0e0" rel="noopener">writing</a> about it for years right here on Medium. But men are not unique in this. According to the 2022 <a href="https://newsroom.thecignagroup.com/loneliness-epidemic-persists-post-pandemic-look" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Cigna Group report on the loneliness epidemic</a> <ul> <li>People from underrepresented racial groups are more likely to be lonely. 75% of Hispanic adults and 68% of Black/African American adults are classified as lonely – at least 10 points higher than what is seen among the total adult population (58%). This is notably different than previous data which showed similar experiences of loneliness across racial and ethnic groups.</li> </ul> <a href="https://medium.com/inside-of-elle-beau/its-ok-for-men-to-talk-about-loneliness-7a6287bf588f">Learn More</a>