Who Can Solve the Aging Boomers Crisis? Boomers

TIME , May 8 — As the number of Americans over age 65 grows dramatically, it’s time to create affordable housing solutions for senior citizens.

Facebook Isn’t Making Us Lonely

Slate, Apr 20 — How the recent Atlantic cover story manufactures the myth of American loneliness.

The Rise and Rise of Solo Live: A Forum

The Guardian, Apr 1 — The number of people living alone has skyrocketed. What is driving the phenomenon? An essay by Eric Klinenberg, and solo dwellers Colm Tóibín, Alex Zane, Carmen Calli and others reflect on life as a singleton.

TIME’s #1 Idea That is Changing Your Life: Living Alone Is The New Norm

Time, Mar 12 — The extraordinary rise of solitary living is the biggest social change that we've neglected to identify, let alone examine. Consider that in 1950, a mere 4 million Americans lived alone, and they made up only 9% of households. Back then, going solo was most common in the open, sprawling Western states--Alaska, Montana and Nevada--that attracted migrant workingmen, and it was usually a short-lived stage on the road to a more conventional domestic life.

Going Solo: Understanding the appeal of the solitary life

The Today Show, Mar 7 — In the beginning of the Old Testament, God creates the world one day at a time: The heavens and the earth. Water. Light. Day and night. Living species of every kind. After each creation, God declares: “It is good.” But the tone changes when God makes Adam. Suddenly, God pronounces the first thing that is not good, lo tov: “It is not good that the man should be alone.” So God makes Eve, and Adam is no longer on his own.

Will Singles & Singletons Cut the Cord?

Wired, Mar 1 — More people live alone today than at any point in recorded history, in absolute numbers and proportionately, too. Until the 1950s, it was impossible to find a single human society that sustained large numbers of singletons (my term for people who live alone) for long periods of time. Today, living alone is common wherever there’s a market economy, a welfare state, and women’s rights.

Songs for Going Solo

Rolling Stone, Feb 14 — There have been a lot of big cultural changes since the Sixties, and no one has covered them like Rolling Stone. But some changes escape the eyes of even the most perceptive observers. We recognize them only in retrospect, and once we do we suddenly realize that artists – especially musicians – were not merely seeing the revolution, but expressing them from the very start. Often, we were even singing along!

Swing–State Singles: How Unmarried Voters Could Decide the Election

The Daily Beast, Feb 11 — Unmarried voters played a decisive role in 2008, and four years later there are even more of them. Eric Klinenberg on how the candidates can court this up-for-grabs demographic.

One’s a Crowd

The New York Times, Feb 4 — More people live alone now than at any other time in history. In prosperous American cities — Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Minneapolis — 40 percent or more of all households contain a single occupant. In Manhattan and in Washington, nearly one in two households are occupied by a single person.

Solo Nation: American Consumers Stay Single

Fortune, Jan 25 — A record number of people in the U.S. now live by themselves -- and they spend $1.9 trillion a year. Businesses are beginning to take notice.

Home Alone: Plot Without a Story

This American Life, Dec 21 — Mary Ann was an elderly woman living by herself in Los Angeles County. She wasn't married, didn't have children, wasn't in touch with any of her family. When she became sick and went to the hospital, the only contact she had was Sue, the woman who delivered her prescriptions from the pharmacy. Then, Mary Ann died. There was a body to be buried, a house full of stuff to get rid of — but no family or friends to deal with it all. Luckily, there was Emily, an investigator for the Los Angeles Public Administrator's Office. It's her job to take care of the remains of lives like Mary Ann's.