The pro-estrangement trend gains traction
The great comedian George Carlin once joked: “The other night, I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going.”
These days, the tables at that “real nice family restaurant” would be all but empty. From The Week magazine, May 12:
Nearly two in five Americans (38%) have gone “no contact” with a friend or family member in the past year, according to a survey of 2,000 adults by Talker Research for the therapy platform Talkspace. These results suggest that “avoiding relationship challenges is becoming more common.”
Family estrangement, once “taboo,” is now a viral social media trend.
To understand how we got here, our February 2026 issue of The Socionomist cover story “It’s Lonely Out Here: Where Have All the People Gone?” explains what the true cause of the modern epidemic of loneliness and self-isolation is — and when it really began.
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