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After all, so many of us lack community. Data from Cigna finds 58% of Americans are lonely. Religion is fading. Work doesn’t love us back. Maybe letting ourselves be obsessed with that highly specific and possibly weird thing we love is the answer.
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Loneliness, meanwhile, is like thirst, says Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience who directs the Social Connection & Health Lab at Brigham Young University. We’re social beings, biologically wired to crave being part of a group. If that’s gone, our mental and physical health can suffer, she says, leading to depression, Type 2 diabetes, even early death.