The local libraries in Los Angeles were all out of them. Rumors that 7-Eleven might have them turned out to be false. But outside the convenience store, gazing upward, was a group of strangers sharing a single pair. As they passed it from person to person, I got up my courage and asked to join in, catching the strange crescent in the nick of time.
On the way home, I chatted with others gazing upward. My neighbors and I looked into alternative viewing methods involving holes poked in paper. I returned to my apartment to texts from friends who used colanders to view the sun; Instagram was full of acquaintances claiming the path of totality had changed their lives. In work chats, people described gatherings with strangers on New York rooftops. While there is debate over the contours of the issue, the number of people living alone has soared in both countries, and pandemic-induced separation forced us to relearn how to get together with friends and family.
Meanwhile, many struggle to find reliable third places β or gathering spaces outside home or work where they feel a sense of community β and little is being done at a systemic level to address the underlying factors that might lead to social disconnection.
But what can we do about it? Institutions from academia to Silicon Valley are trying to answer this question, and their proposed solutions are as wildly divergent as you might expect β from rethinking romance to befriending robots. Speaking to thinkers, therapists and entrepreneurs, I waded through a deluge of these approaches.
I found that the most appealing were the ones that drew on an analog past rather than a digital future. Silicon Valley is a huge part of the problem; it put phones in our hands and gave us limitless ways to entertain ourselves from the comfort of our own rooms. Can it also be part of the solution? Like Bumble BFF, which matches potential friends for in-person hangouts via a swiping system.
