From the article: "lonely individuals tend to perceive that their ideas are not shared by others"

I wonder how the current loneliness epidemic is intertwined with our current social/political climate and "us vs them" polarization.

I suspect almost everyone has some secret disagreements with their in-group, even if only by a matter of degree, but are afraid to voice that opinion. There have to be tens of millions of Americans who identify as a INSERT_POLITICAL_IDENTITY but disagree with some aspect of that group's platform, narrative or goals.

It's a wonder that anyone doesn't feel like their ideas are not shared by others.

> I suspect almost everyone has some secret disagreements with their in-group

This is assuming they have anyone close enough to even call them an in-group

I think there has been an over-emphasis on individuality and a strong resistance to conformity that has been instilled in a lot of people, which has led to a lot of those people cutting ties with anyone that has even minor disagreements with them

They are forever in search of their perfect friend group that doesn't exist, made up of only people who agree with them about every single thing

It's quite amazing how many people call themselves "free thinkers" to mean they have unique ideas, yet those ideas usually align with a huge percentage of the population.

Yeah I think this is the end result of defining people more by their group membership than who they are as individuals.