The Daily UbuntuThread 07 · Digital Solitude · September 25, 2026
Loneliness, a public health issue
Screens promise connection and often deliver isolation. Ubuntu reminds us that we become someone in the presence of others.
1 · The scene
Sunday evening. Two hundred and fourteen notifications.
Not one asks: "How are you, really?"
Original vignette
2 · The documented case
Loneliness, a public health issue
According to Statistics Canada, in early 2024, 13% of Canadians aged 15 and over always or often felt lonely. Among 15- to 24-year-olds, the share rises to 17%.
In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory on the "epidemic of loneliness." It notes that a lack of social connection can increase the risk of premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
Ubuntu is not against technology. It only asks what technology does to our bonds: does it nourish them, or replace them?
3 · The voice
“A person is a person through other persons.”
4 · The question
To whom could you, this week, offer your presence rather than a message?
Sources
- Statistics Canada, "You've got a friend in me," 2024. www.statcan.gc.ca
- U.S. Surgeon General, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, 2023. www.hhs.gov
Every figure on this page links to a verifiable public source.
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