Recent research studies show how much we crave community and friendship. A 2006 study of 3,000 women with breast cancer found that those with a large network of friends were four times more likely to survive as women with sparser social connections. A French study that monitored nearly 17,000 utility workers revealed the degree of their social interactions was a good way of predicting who would still be alive by the end of the decade. A study involving almost 3,000 Americans found that people with close friendships are far less likely to die young. And another study found that fifty-year-old men with active friendships are less likely to have heart attacks than solitary men.

Despite this powerful scientific evidence, our habits are becoming more solitary. Since the late 1980s, according to surveys in the United States, Europe, and Australia, more and more people say they are feeling isolated and lonely.