'Solitude has become a notable, and worrisome, trend of our times'

'Our relationships with friends are as important as those with family'

Youyou Zhou at The Washington Post

Recent data "shows that people of all age groups are spending far less time with friends than they did 20 years ago," says Youyou Zhou. We are "spending more time by ourselves, probably with our phones or in front of screens." The "most sustainable way to increase our time with friends," Zhou adds, is "not to create new or exciting adventures," but rather to "integrate friends into ordinary activities, such as sharing meals, watching films at home and grocery shopping."

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'Sports breed civility'

Frederick J. Ryan Jr. and James Washington at the Los Angeles Times

"Football's popularity, and its brutality, always takes heat for its role in the larger culture of violence," say Frederick J. Ryan Jr. and James Washington. But while the "growing emphasis on curbing the game's long-term health risks, especially its connections to brain injury," is important, "too much is learned from football to cast it aside." Sports "gather us together" and keep us from "turning further inward, deeper into the isolation and paranoia that fuel our present crisis."

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'Mangione has enjoyed an online fandom unlike any witnessed in recent history'

Ross Barkan at The Guardian

Gen Z's politics are a "harbinger of a new political order," says Ross Barkan. "Average people" are "sick of the wealthy and the famous," which explains the popularity of the "ultimate anti-influencer, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione," the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. "Over the next decade, the great clashes might not be between left and right," but "those who are open about their disdain for existing institutions and those who seek a new order."

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'Higher education has always been a tool of American soft power'

Somdeep Sen at Al Jazeera

"President-elect Donald Trump has promised to launch an all-out attack on American universities as soon as he returns to the White House," says Somdeep Sen. For example, "he could easily create an environment, and pass regulation, that would pressure institutions to move away from DEI initiatives," and he may also limit "minority and marginalized communities' access to higher education" with his promise to scrap federal loan forgiveness programs. "American universities may not have a choice but to accept their fate and adapt."

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