Top
Best
New

Posted by publicdebates 1/15/2026

Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?

Countless voiceless people sit alone every day and have no one to talk to, people of all ages, who don't feel that they can join any local groups. So they sit on social media all day when they're not at work or school. How can we solve this?
799 points | 1245 commentspage 21
xorvoid 1/16/2026|
Others have said a longer version of this:

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Do it yourself. Don't wait on others. Organize social events, invite people.

keat007 1/16/2026||
They'll come up with a drug that increases oxytocin and pro-social behavior maybe like a safe MDMA and that's the cure.
RaccoonAttack 1/16/2026||
I think the solution will be large power outage.
anothereng 1/16/2026||
Go to the latin mass :) find community at church
bookman10 1/16/2026|
Church -> Marriage -> children -> kids sporting events or school events
musiclocal 1/15/2026||
I think the big solution consists of many small solutions. One problem I identified is that social media platforms (1) decimated local live music events coverage in mid-sized cities and (2) placed live music events into the same "filter bubble" algorithm as everything else, making it difficult for people to discover what is going on nearby.

I started https://musiclocal.org, a 501(c)(3), as a curated live music events platform for my local area (and hopefully others). We list all the live music events in the area, and we optimize the software for usability, performance, SEO, etc. The goal is to make discovering local live music events as easy as doom-scrolling. We have had an outstanding reception in the area we serve. We are not self-sustaining yet, but I am optimistic about our chances. As a non-profit, we do not do any of the dark-pattern garbage that has become omnipresent in social media and other consumer software. We just do the right thing as best we can.

Here is some more background (from our "Issues" page):

At MusicLocal, we focus on the root challenges facing local music communities to address endemic issues of negative social media practices, isolation and community polarization, and economic concentration and monopolization. Specifically:

• We believe convenient, comprehensive live music event listings are critical to reversing the decline in local music journalism. • We believe ethically designed, steward-curated live music event listings provide a vital alternative to addictive social media platforms. • We believe that making live music more visible and accessible encourages in-person interaction, strengthening communities and alleviating loneliness and social isolation. • We believe that local live music listings are a critical component of strong local economies, helping to lessen the negative economic consequences of big tech and music industry monopolies.

---

"Technology has a purpose, and that purpose is to do good and to share" --Steve Wozniak

retrocog 1/15/2026|
Agreed and this is an awesome project. We need more of this. Social Media <==> Real World
css_apologist 1/15/2026||
people act as if this is an individualist problem, but that ignores all the facts

the first place to think about serious change is city planning since the invention of cars & then suburbs

we used to be forced to live next to each other, walk and see each other

it turns our car based city planning doesn’t work on any level if you look at cities which didn’t go all in

nextlevelwizard 1/16/2026||
People just don’t want to do stuff.

If I don’t ask my friends to hang out or play video games or whatever no one else will.

zippyman55 1/16/2026||
It’s been ten years, but we ran a dinner group, once a month, and met at various restaurants. Very popular.
davidguetta 1/16/2026||
Put the smartphone down in the evening
l-j-g 1/15/2026|
We need an open-source dating / social platform that isn’t designed to monetise loneliness.

We’ve outsourced forming relationships to profit-driven systems that trade comfort and convenience for reduced real-world social effort. By substituting the need to approach people in person, these platforms quietly erode social confidence and reinforce avoidance, exacerbating the social problems they claim to solve.

More comments...