Ben Sasse may have left his position as a Nebraska Senator, but that hasn’t stopped him from trying to serve the public. Now, he’s bringing attention to what he sees as a growing epidemic of loneliness amongst young men. Sasse brought up his concerns in a 90-minute interview during The Trinity Forum in Washington, DC. Sasse cited data that shows the number of people who state they have no close friends has quadrupled since the 1990s. He noted a particular disparity among men, with a study by Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks that found that amongst 60-year-old men, 60% referred to their wife as their best friend, while only 30% of women said the same. “And what’s obvious in that data is that women are better than men, on average, at forming new friendships when disruption occurs. And men are much less good, on average, at forming new friendships when disruption occurs. And we’re entering a world where disruption is going to be ubiquitous,” he warned.

Facing death from his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Sasse shared his gratitude for the male friendships that have come alongside him. Yet he said friendships like the ones he’s formed are becoming rarer. “There’s no thickness that binds you together like something that feels more foxhole-ish, because you really needed each other. So, the richer we get, the stranger it will be to have lasting friendships,” he said. He warned that as more people delay marriage and starting families, it delays formation of deep relationships, which sometimes means they may never come.

This is not the first time Sasse has discussed the impact of loneliness on the nation. In 2018, he published Them: Why We Hate Each Other — and How to Heal. The book focused on what he described as the “the evaporation of social capital” — the satisfactions of work and community. In the book, Sasse discussed that despite technology allowing more connection than ever through social media, it has become a false connectedness, with loneliness becoming the nation’s “number one health crisis.” One example of a loss of connection in society is a loss of a shared culture. When there was less TV programming, it wasn’t uncommon for as many as 70% of US families to watch programs like “I Love Lucy.” The plethora of options in today’s society, however, means that even the most popular shows are only capturing a small percentage of the nation. For Sasse, the solution is rebuilding the American social infrastructure, where community and hospitality once again become normalized. What that will look like, particularly for young men, remains to be seen.