The Isolation Age

The 26th of March, 2026

2020 was a year of massive societal change. When COVID hit, it was clear things would not be the same again. It’s been six years since the dawn of that loathsome era, and it’s left lasting scars on society as a whole. One of which, I’d like to discuss a bit today.

With the coming of COVID, a lot of social 3rd place environments closed up or started to close early, and in my town this is still an issue. The bars that were once open until the wee hours of the morning now close before I even get off work. Lots of social spaces have seemed to vanish in the transition from pre-COVID to post-COVID, and for nowhere towns like the one I live in, I doubt they’ll ever come back.

Because of COVID, we’ve also seen more products and services move online. While this has been nice for accessibility, it’s moved a lot of our lives onto our phones and computers and away from the real world. I think this is troubling. One particularly egregious example is the proliferation of food delivery apps. It’s quite common now for people to pay double the price for takeout just to avoid having to interact with another human. We saw this kind of thinking popularized (for good reason) in the lockdowns, but it’s persisted even to today.

This combination of things is why I’ve been personally thinking of this era I live in as the Isolation Age. Corpos have realized that we are more socially isolated than ever before as well, and because of this, we’ve seen the rise of products like AI girlfriend/boyfriend apps and other disturbing things.

Don’t lament though, we can all play a small part in forging a better future; the spirit of togetherness can bring an end to the woeful age of Isolation.

The Isolation Age is something that’s easy to fight; simply refuse to be isolated (as much as possible). I recommend that you start by removing food delivery services from your life. Instead, go to your favorite takeout place once a week in the real world, talk with the workers there, and get to know them. This kind of thing fosters a sense of community. It may seem inconsequential, but even something as small as this is a huge upgrade, mentally, from ordering something on your iPhone. Humans are social creatures, and small talk and community, like this, play a bigger role in your mental health than you may think.

It’s hard to think of some kind of solution for the bars and third places in my town shutting down early or closing shop altogether. This is something I’ve been considering for a while. One of the big steps that would be good to take is hanging out less online with IRL friends and meeting up more in the real world. Perhaps you can’t go out to the bars and hang out all night again, but it’s much more socially enriching to play a video game together on the same sofa and not over the internet on voice chat. You can’t get all your human interaction through a screen. We’re animals after all; we need to be seen and hugged and all of that other basic stuff that a call on Discord can’t give.

I also ask, dear reader, that you remain wise to your loneliness being marketed to. This is a huge societal shift we are seeing; other people are lonely too, and corpos want to take advantage of this. I’ve seen marketing for various AI partner apps or devices, and this is deeply troubling. We should not allow companies bereft of morals to prey on people’s woes like this. When you see something of this nature, speak out about how gross it is! No one should have to emotionally rely on a chatbot. We are creatures that deserve to be loved and heard by real humans.

All I’m asking is that you insert yourself into the real world from time to time. Consider nixing online shopping or food delivery if you can go in real life; you may meet someone special while you’re out there. Try hanging out with your coworkers outside of work; they’re probably cool people, and being in a new setting with them will be fun. It’s lots of little steps every day, and it’ll be a change that must occur slowly over time, but together we can end the Isolation Age.