I recently saw a video of an elderly man learning how to use a messenger app. They sent it to me as something sweet, but it made me sad. He was a 93-year-old man. He had taken notes, with beautiful drawings and diagrams, about how to use a smartphone. It was definitely sweet and touching, I don't deny that, I'm just saying that it also made me sad. As an analogy, I feel something similar when listening to stories about overcoming poverty. I'm moved by the sacrifice of the child who walks in the cold to reach a rural school, or the parents who skip dinner so their children can eat better, but the heroism doesn't remove the injustice. It hurts me that these things are necessary. All things considered, it hurts me that it's necessary to learn to use a smartphone at 93 years old. Here I'm inferring a few things. I think it was something necessary, and not mere curiosity about technology or a desire to innovate, because in the latter case he probably would have learned this 5 or 10 years ago, when smartphones were already commonplace. But he learned now. And I think he needed to learn now to alleviate his loneliness. Beyond whether that's true in this specific case, the epidemic of loneliness is a tragedy we often overlook. I believe that epidemic is born from a corrosion of the social fabric that has concrete causes. If this is true, then the problem still has no solution, and it will continue to accelerate unless we do something about it. An Uncomfortable Truth People have limited time. The more time we dedicate to one thing, the less time we can dedicate to others. Grossly speaking, this should be a basic principle (a few caveats add some “noise”, such as getting more energy from doing more things, but the broader constraint remains). However, applying the same principle to people reminds us of a jealous boyfriend. It looks bad and is generally rejected, mainly because it's often used to justify possessive behaviors we don't want to suffer. It's easier and si