How to Make Grief a Little Less Lonely

Key points

Social media can bring us together in our grief.

Saying the names of people who have died keeps them present.

Posting about people we're grieving is a less vulnerable way to share that we're hurting.

The first time I heard the term “ loneliness epidemic,” it gave me pause. I’d always thought of an epidemic as an outbreak of disease, and while loneliness is emotionally painful, I hadn’t realized it could literally make us sick. A bit of digging, and I learned that loneliness doesn’t just affect our mood; it can increase our risk of heart disease and stroke and has even been found to pose the same health risks as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

There are many factors contributing to this epidemic, of course, with one major culprit being our reliance on technology as a primar