Ydhan Naidoo, '26, and Henry Ouellette, '26

Summer 2024

PDF available with citations and footnotes here

Sen. Chris Murphy: CM, Ydhan Naidoo: YN, Henry Ouellette: HO

YN: What really brought your attention towards this issue of loneliness? 

CM: I think you know—I think most Americans today know—that there's something dangerous happening in our society and culture. You're seeing rising rates of addiction and violence. Political extremism is more attractive and stronger than ever before. America feels like it's unraveling a bit. And I don't think it's really hard to figure out some of the reasons. There has been a social revolution in this country over the course of the last 20 years that has caused us to spend fundamentally less time with each other than we did just a generation ago, and there's lots of reasons for that. Social media, longer working hours, COVID and the aftermath. Americans report being lonelier than ever, report being more unhappy than ever. Data suggests that we're spending far less time with family friends than ever before. And I just believe that there is a connection between the really dispiriting statistics around adverse behaviors and this culture of despair, and our increasing difficulty finding connection with others, with other community members, so I think it's an important conversation for us to have: Why are we disconnected from each other? Why are we feeling so crappy? And what are the things that government can do to try to help that?

YN: I see. And then I think you said that you want to create an Office for Social Connection to advise the President on loneliness, and how these issues relate to the economy, public health, national security, etc. How does this new office improve on the current systems we have—are there aspects of these new programs that you feel are better than or compensating for something that the older programs don't really address? 

CM: You know, public policy is driven by what we measure. And right now, we measure job creation, [we measure] GDP growth, we measure wages, we measure student test scores. We don't measure connection. And yet, happiness data tells us that what is most essential to all of us feeling like we live a fulfilled life is relationships, and connection to friends and family, not career or the amount of money we make. And so, you have to start by asking yourself, do you believe the government is in the business of allowing people, of helping people, to lead happy lives? I believe we are in a position of independence, the idea that Americans have a right to happiness, and a government's job is to help deliver that right. And so if people have a right to happiness, research tells us that connection to other human beings is what drives happiness and we should be creating rules of society that facilitate connection instead of interrupting the enduring connection. So I want this office because it's the beginning of a focus on measuring connection and prompting a discussion—that has not happened up to this point—about the kind of government policies that can help people find connection. We have all sorts of economic offices, right? I mean, there's literally hundreds of offices in the federal government focused on measuring economic inputs and outputs and not a single office and federal government that's dedicated to measuring inputs and outputs of social connection, despite the fact that friendship and relationships are more essential to happiness than the amount of money you make per year or your career. So I'm just trying to facilitate the beginning of a sea change in the things that government talks and cares about.

YN: Certainly. A follow up question there is that when you're looking at these causes of loneliness that you've brought up, do you see them as more of a structural issue relating to areas around polarization or income inequality? Or do you think that loneliness is its own kind of separate, independent issue that needs to be addressed? 

CM: Well, the first thing to say is that the government should not endeavor to, and  never will, eliminate loneliness. We all know what that feels like. It's a pretty common human emotion. And it would be silly to suggest that there's going to be any policy that eliminates it. In fact, it's an important growing experience, right? Feeling and being lonely is important because it gives you a cold water experience to understand the benefit of warm water. But there are choices government has made, especially over the last 20 years, that have made it really hard for people to go out and find connection. The refusal to regulate new technologies like social media is a clear example. You know, there's a lot of good that comes from social media, but there's a lot of evil there, too. And it used to be that the government would regulate new technologies to make sure that we got as much of the good and as little of the bad. We decided not to do that with social media, and one of the results of a lack of regulation of social media has been a crisis of withdrawal, especially amongst young people. I think one of the tougher questions to grapple with is what's happened to institutions in this country. That's where we used to find a decent amount of connection. Places like churches, or unions, like there are some things that the government can do to facilitate a rebirth of connected institutions. But some of that is just because we live in a society today where there's less faith in institutions, in part because the behavior of those institutions have been exposed. So yes, I think there's things the government can do to try to facilitate connection, and there are things that the government probably can't see. 

YN: Building off of that, when you kind of look at these initiatives, there's always going to be a bit of a disconnect between writing the law and the law itself being implemented within the broader populace. From a day to day perspective, how do you see your policy kind of playing out?

CM: Right now, I'm just trying to prompt a conversation around this issue so that it's elevated to a place of importance. You know, I'm not expecting that we're going to solve the loneliness crisis overnight. But I think it's also important to note that the changes that I think are necessary in order to create more connection amongst Americans have all sorts of other important positive byproducts as well. So one of the things you need to do is create more leisure time. People today or you have to work 70 hours to create the same standard of living for the family. If you increase wages, you will create more leisure time and create more opportunities for social connection, but you will also just deliver a higher standard of living to families because they will be able to make more money from the same number of hours. So I don't  know that there's a lot of policy that is only social connection policy. A lot of the things that I'm talking about will have an impact on social connection, but we'll have all sorts of other good impacts. 

HO: All these things that you've talked about are national and it makes sense why they're going to be national policies. But given that there are a lot of local institutions that people turn to—at least they used to turn to—do you think that there's a role for state and local governments here as well? And if so, how do you think that would work in the context of also national legislation? 

CM: Well, I mean, actually, I think the primary work here is going to be done by the private sector and civil society. I think the rules that have been created by the government make it really hard for private actors to succeed when they're trying to facilitate and create connection. So what we've got to be doing is setting broad policies that prioritize a rebirth of social connection in this country. And it'll be up to the private sector to, you know, fill in the blanks. 

YN: I see. Moving a little bit to a separate topic, and I know that we're kind of running out of time so I think will probably be the last question: we heard from your staff that you have a new initiative on the common good around the idea of having conversations with people from different political backgrounds, and that these kinds of conversations are going to be helpful in bridging some of the polarization within the within the US. Do you see this initiative as being separate from your loneliness initiative, or as part of it? 

CM: It's certainly connected. All of this is going to get into a conversation about how we create more meaning and purpose for people in this country. And you can be deeply lonely in a crowd if you don't feel connected to that crowd. What gives people the clearest sense of purpose and belonging is a common mission—a belief that they are acting for the greater good. There's a lot of really successful people who make a lot of money who are really miserable, in part because they're not connected to a purpose, to an elevation of a community. I think this country has become perversely obsessed with individual success at the cost of valuing community success, so I seek a much more communitarian culture. And Governor Cox has some of the same beliefs or worries that we have become a very individualistic society, and a society that does not care as much about our neighbors as we might have 20 or 30 years ago. And so we're talking about the ways in which public policy can be used to create a greater value in the common good. You know, maybe everything in this country shouldn't be commoditized. Maybe profit and efficiency shouldn't matter as much as they do but I also think that if you elevate concern for connection, if you give Americans more opportunities, to live life, to live lives of purpose, and that purpose is doing good for everybody else, that will address the loneliness crisis. 

YN: Okay, and yeah, I think that's really, I think that the gist of what we were we were hoping to hear to talk about. Thank you.

CM: Always, always glad to help out any way that I can. Thanks for showing interest in this topic. Really appreciate it.