Axios - Americans are spending less time socializing than they did 20 years ago — and the trend cuts across every generation, Axios' Erica Pandey writes from the new American Time Use Survey.
- Our growing isolation is a fundamental shift in the way we live with implications for everything from what we believe to how long we live.
🚨 Average time spent socializing per day has fallen from 45 to 35 minutes over the last 20 years.
- The decline is steepest among young people: 15- to 24-year-olds went from spending an hour a day hanging out with others to 35 minutes.
Sociologists and psychologists point to several trends driving this phenomenon in what Substack writer Derek Thompson dubbed "The Anti-Social Century."
- We're all on our smartphones, often interacting through screens instead of face-to-face. Teens spend an average of 4.8 hours a day on apps like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, according to Gallup.
- The shift to remote work — and life — during the pandemic has persisted.
- Longer-term trends are reshaping daily life in ways that make retreat easier. Homes are bigger and more comfortable, with larger TVs. Most restaurants are on food delivery apps, making it easier than ever to stay in.
☕ Also contributing to the trend is the decline of gathering spaces, Axios' Avery Lotz writes.
- In a 2025 report, University of Colorado Boulder researchers uncovered widespread closures of all kinds of hangout spots — from libraries to coffee shops to museums — in the last decade or so.
- Churches are also shuttering at unprecedented rates, Axios' Russell Contreras reports. Share this story.
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