In 2023, in an advisory entitled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” former surgeon general Vivek Murthy wrote that “social disconnection was far more common than I had realized.”
And the problem persists. According to 2025 Pew Research Center data, 24% of 18- to 29-year-olds feel lonely or isolated all or most of the time, while 20% of 30- to 49-year-olds report feeling the same.
It turns out that’s even more true for adolescent boys. More than a quarter, 26%, of 11- to 17-year-old boys in the U.S. report feeling lonely, according to a recent report by nonprofit Common Sense Media.
“Kids are increasingly lonely,” says Dr. German Velez, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Columbia University Medical Center. “And that’s something that we’ve known for a while.”
Here’s why, and what parents can do about it.
