Issue #79: Has loneliness become a business opportunity?

And is that really such a bad thing?

Feeling lonely? Your best bet, judging by the latest data, is to head to the pub: over half of us (54%) say we feel less lonely after small moments of interaction there. If you’d quoted this statistic to me last Sunday, when I was – as it happens – at my local beer garden, then I would have said, fair enough. I was there for a Bob Dylan tribute gig, among fellow fans (admittedly mostly 30+ years my senior). There were small children and puppies running around, mingling between tables and everyone was in good spirits.

But there’s a fly in the ointment. That report was conducted by Heineken, the world’s third-largest beer company, released in collaboration with the Marmalade Trust for this year’s Loneliness Awareness Week. Which isn’t, in itself, that abnormal. It’s commonplace for small charities – like Marmalade Trust, which I’ve worked with before – to work with big corporations in order to cover research costs. But then you consider the ethics of something so fundamentally basic to human survival – connection – being commodified, especially painful in a city like London, where the price of a pint just rose to £8.

Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed the growth of what the Financial Times has termed ‘the loneliness economy’: an environment where businesses profit from consumer loneliness. Spanning everything from dystopian robot pets to co-living spaces, many of this so-called industry’s offerings come at a far greater cost than a pint. The sense of belonging that comes from a private members’ club, or (as I do) paying monthly for a premium co-working space. For dating apps, which increasingly push members towards subscription models, loneliness is big business: it’s no surprise Google searches peak for ‘loneliness’ at the same time they do ‘dating apps’. Then there are events, societies, group holidays – all of which have an unspoken undercurrent of loneliness.

Alternative loneliness cures: Bob Dylan tribute acts, Peruvian food.

In a sense, this is basic economics: