There’s loneliness and then there’s social atrophy. They are related but not quite the same thing.
We know that loneliness is a persistent issue in the UK and in many other hyper-individualised countries around the world. It impacts some age groups more than others - young adults are especially susceptible. The causes are multiple with the demise of ‘third spaces’ being a key issue.
Feeling alone regularly, is generally not a nice thing to experience. Most of us have had periods like this in our lives, I know I have, it’s painful - even when quite fleeting. There is, however, a related phenomenon and it might just be worse, social atrophy.
We have mentioned social atrophy in our theory of change and our draft manifesto, so I wanted to share something about what it is.
I’m not going to write about it at great length in this article. It is better, I think, to point you towards a true expert, Dr Sarah Stein Lubrano. Her book ‘Don’t Talk About Politics’ covers this topic brilliantly, chapter 6 is one of the best pieces of non-fiction writing I’ve ever read. I heartily recommend it. In fact, if The Miracle Inn could afford it, we’d send everyone who joins us a copy of that book!
Helpfully, Lubrano wrote a piece for The Ideas Letter in August 2025 on The Perils of Social Atrophy. It’s a 10 minute read and perfect if you want to quickly grasp what Social Atrophy is. I’ve also attempted a quick summary below.
***Spoiler alert*** If you are going to read The Perils of Social Atrophy article, please ignore the below for now - come back to it when you need a quick refresher in a few weeks time. However, if you’re after a breif summary, please read on.
I have drawn out a few quotes from Lubrano’s article that help explain what social atrophy is, what can be done about it, and why doing something about it is important in the context the climate, nature, and wider polycrisis.
What is social atrophy?
Here are the key points Lubrano makes about what social atrophy is:
“People are not feeling lonelier than they used to, either overall or by age group. But they are spending more hours of the day alone.”
“even if people don’t feel any lonelier, all this being alone is very bad news. For neuroscientific research shows that when people spend more time alone, their brains change.”
After ‘too much’ time alone “the grey matter associated with social judgment shrinks, and in the process people get worse at judging social cues and noticing social opportunities.”
“The result is social atrophy: the shrinking of people’s social brains as they increasingly withdraw from others.”
“we may all be experiencing this to some degree without even noticing it.”
“A person experiencing social atrophy might not say “I am lonely” but rather, “I prefer to be alone” – or even in more dire cases: “people cannot be trusted.” They may no longer wish to share life with others.”
So in the same way that our muscles ‘atrophy’ or weaken when we don’t use them, our social skills can also atrophy/weaken over time. Social atrophy creeps up on us, we adapt and carry on often unaware that something has changed, but it has and our lives are different as a result. And as social atrophy becomes more common across society, society changes too and not for the better.
What can be done about it?
Lubrano’s article reveals some of the causes of social atrophy, e.g. “the homebound, delivery-oriented, frictionless world that is increasingly made possible through new technologies and social norms” but also provides some hope. There are things that can be done to tackle social atrophy. Here’s what Lubrano recommends:
First a note of caution: “Simply offering people new social opportunities won’t work if the problem is social atrophy, because many will not desire them.”
“We should think of social life as something similar to physical exercise: an activity that we often don’t feel like doing even though a baseline is good for us. As we do more of it, however, it will also become less exhausting and less painful.”
However, “Social atrophy cannot be treated solely with individual-oriented solutions, like a combination of medication and therapy. Much of the solution necessarily involves the very structure of society.”
“What is needed is a world of social infrastructure, of design that makes it not only easy but largely necessary to regularly interact with others. “
Why tackle social atrophy?
One of the causes and consequences of the rise of social atrophy is the loss of social infrastructure, hence Lubrano’s call for ‘a world of social infrastructure’.
To lose social infrastructure is to lose things like the clubs, societies, networks and associations we are part of. It also means losing our ‘third places’, i.e. places other than home or work: cafes, pubs, libraries, parks, playgrounds, public footpaths, cinemas, galleries, theatres, places of worship, and village halls.
So why tackle social atrophy? To save our social infrastructure, it is valuable in its own right (and key, of course, to solving social atrophy). But it is what that social infrastructure facilitates that is of critical importance. Without it, things go wrong pretty quickly.
Here’s Lubrano again on what happens when social atrophy increases and social infrastructure declines:
“The result, in the US and elsewhere, is a society of estranged, isolated, distrustful, paranoid and tired people—which likely contributes to xenophobia, plummeting trust in government and increasing conspiratorial thinking.”
This is not a good foundation upon which to build collective movements capable of creating ‘the fundamental changes to how society functions’ (IPCC, 2023) that are needed to create a thriving and climate resilient, sustainable world.
What can The Miracle Inn and its members do about it?
This is where we come in.
By ‘we’, I mean we, the members of The Miracle Inn; we, the ‘movement for interdependence’; we, the ‘new climate movement’.
We can promote, encourage, and facilitate the use of social infrastructure, campaign to reinstate or protect social infrastructure, and create our own pieces of social infrastructure.
We can campaign against hyper-individualising business and government practices that foster isolation rather connection.
We can nurture the idea of the interdependent self.
The Miracle Inn itself, as a CIC, will set out to do all three of the above as our [draft] manifesto makes clear. But we will also be a new piece of social infrastructure a digital ‘third place’ where our members and followers can come together to figure out how they can do some (or all) of the above too.
Join us
The Miracle Inn will start its activities in June 2026. We will be recruiting founder members from June 1st 2026. To stay up to date, please sign up to our e-newsletter today.
