Research shows we're spending more time alone than ever before. Atlantic writer Derek Thompson says all this "me time" has a profound impact on our relationships and politics. Also, David Bianculli reviews the documentary Without Arrows.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. Recently, my guest, writer Derek Thompson, took his family out to dinner and noticed that while the restaurant was bustling, he and his family were the only people actually sitting down to eat. Every few minutes, a flurry of people would walk in, grab bags of food, and walk out.
The restaurant's bar counter had become, as he puts it, a silent depot for people to grab food to eat at home in solitude. In February's issue of The Atlantic, Thompson writes about the phenomenon he calls the antisocial century. More people are choosing isolation over hanging out with others, and we can't blame it all on COVID-19. This trend started before the pandemic.
The problem is that humans by nature are social beings, and the consequences of isolation are stark. Our personalities are changing, as well as our politics and and our relationship to reality. Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said, Derek Thompson, is a writer for The Atlantic and the author of the Work in Progress newsletter.
He's also the author of the books Hitmakers and On Work, Money, Meaning, Identity, and the host of the podcast Plain English. His new book, Abundance, co-authored with Ezra Klein, comes out in March. Derek Thompson, welcome to Fresh Air, and I'm excited to talk with you again.
It's really wonderful to be here, and I'm excited to talk to you as well.
Okay, Derek, I think a lot of us would assume that what you saw today when you were out to dinner with your family, is just a holdover of the pandemic. But you actually trace this isolation even further back. What did you find?
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