Single in a Pandemic: Not the Same Old Stories

What does it mean to be single in this world-historic time of illness, death, and physical separation from other humans?

Here I’ve collected stories and analyses from around the world (including my own) that transcend the predictable deficit narratives of single life. As Ginny Hogan noted, when writing for the Atlantic about those who are a little too quick to pity single people, “The problem arises when coupled people assume that all single people are miserable, rather than determining which of their friends actually need their support.”

Some single people are not just surviving, they are thriving.

Single People Living Alone (and with Others): How Are We Doing, Really?

During the pandemic, people who are single at heart have been thriving.

In one story after another about the pandemic, single people have been described as miserable and lonely. That pity is misplaced when it comes to people who are single at heart.

How the pandemic created a cohort of secure single people.

They didn’t want to stay single. Then the pandemic happened, and they discovered something they may never have realized otherwise — single life really suited them.

Single in a pandemic: 18 reflections at the 1-year mark.

Stories, a year into the pandemic, from Australia, Canada, India, the UK, and the US. What they all have in common, I think, is thoughtfulness and resilience.

Have people living alone become lonelier during COVID-19? Now we know.

A study tracking loneliness before and after the pandemic found no evidence for the popular story line pitying those single people living all alone and their presumed pandemic-induced loneliness.

Singles under Quarantine: Are They Really Disadvantaged?

Has the conventional wisdom about the supposed deficiencies of single people resulted in misleading media stories about how singles are faring during the pandemic — and in life?

People living alone during COVID-19 adapt to life with limited in-person interaction