The Creation
Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox |
By Matthew Fox 12/20/2025 |
These headlines caught my attention this week: “Loneliness Surges Among Key Groups of Americans”; “’Lonely, terrifying and scary’: 70% of students in UK university Halls feel isolated, poll shows”; “Tech Companies Have Created a Loneliness Doom Loop.” |
It is often said that loneliness comes to a head around holiday times, so this topic seems appropriate for meditation in a time of Advent, Hanukkah, and Christmas. According to the first article*, recent studies have found that the |
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loneliest
people in America today are middle-aged people between the ages of 45 and 49, of whom 49 percent report loneliness. People who never married report a level of 62 percent being lonely. “Overall, 42 percent of men and 37 percent of women were lonely.” A policy officer at AARP, who conducted the survey, reports that
people in their 40s and 50s are so busy with work, raising children, and being part of the sandwich generation, that we’re not able to really invest in the relationships that can help sustain us and make us happy. |
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| In the study of university students in the UK**, two-thirds of
those living in halls or dorms “feel lonely or isolated, blaming accommodation costs and over-reliance on phones” for limiting their social life. A 20-year-old student proposed that technology may play an important role in her loneliness. The phone allows her “to just reach all my friends back home,” and avoid making new
friends where she now lives. During her first year in college, I was terrified to make new |
friends, so I just relied on the fact that I had already had some and I didn’t really bother reaching out much …I didn’t realize living so far away from them (my old friends) would be such an issue. One proposal offered by students is that university dorms have at least one staff member available 24/7 so
students always have someone to talk to. It is a myth that most students make friends instantly in college, says a student leader: “Most students experience some level of loneliness or isolation.” Schools can do a better job of encouraging students to “be the best version of themselves during this key stage of their lives,”
he proposes. |
Samantha Rose Hill, who is writing a book on loneliness, offered a guest essay*** for the New York Times in July, warning how tech companies are “promising relief through connection, but this kind of connection isn’t the solution; it’s the problem.” She talks of a
“loneliness economy” and how loneliness isn’t a “pathology to be cured” or a “market opportunity to manufacture, sell and buy treatment.” Instead, it is a “universal human experience” that needs our attention. She warns that declaring a “national epidemic” can result in loneliness becoming an
industry.” |
Emotional reassurance, AI style. Composite image, partially AI generated. |
AI gives you
“what you want, how you want it, when you want it,” and skirts the reality of human-to-human contact. It ignores our need “to apologize, ask for forgiveness, suffer an uncomfortable silence or wonder what another person is thinking. It ignores our need “to apologize, ask for forgiveness, suffer an uncomfortable silence or wonder what another
person is thinking.” In fact, there is no other—just a reflection of yourself. Narcissism reigns. Contrary to Zuckerberg’s language of a “personalization loop,” Hill proposes that the AI path provides a “loneliness loop….The goods being sold as cures keep us stuck in a loneliness loop.” In Monday’s DM, we will consider some
medicine for loneliness that spirituality offers. How anthropomorphism itself feeds acedia, which is “a lack of energy to begin new things” (Aquinas), such as making new friends, developing the art of friendship, and ritual that births community.
To be continued.
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*Shannon Najmabadi, “The Loneliest Americans, According to a Survey of 3,000 Adults,” The Washington Post, December 3,
2025
**Jamie Grierson, “‘Lonely, terrifying and scary’: 70% of students in UK university halls feel isolated, poll
shows,” The Guardian, December 17, 2025.
***Samantha Rose Hill, “Tech
Companies Have Created a Loneliness Doom Loop,” The New York Times, July 7, 2025.
Banner Image: “Loneliness.” Photo by Gabriel on Unsplash |
Queries for Contemplation Do you sense loneliness is playing a bigger role in society at this time? How
do you go about combating loneliness? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, or read other comments and enter into dialogue, please click HERE to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
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| Counterpoint: A Response to Peter Thiel’s Antichrist An Important Conversation with Matthew Fox and Gil Duran Did you miss this two-session series with its powerful counter-narrative rooted in wisdom, justice, and |
authentic spirituality? This is your
chance to add it to your library of classics to be watched, re-watched, and contemplated. Fox explores the archetype of Christ and Antichrist as it plays out in our world today but also in artists of old. He draws from the teachings of Jesus and Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and other mystics and visionaries, illuminating the stark contrast between life-giving and life-destroying spiritual energies. Purchase HERE. |
UPCOMING EVENTS See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox in a free 4-session Online Lecture/Discussion/Q&A event, “Creation Spirituality and the Celebrating & Healing of Mother Earth & Ourselves,” co-presented by the Episcopal Diocese of Wisconsin and Matthew Fox Legacy Project. Wednesdays, January 14, 21,28, February 4, 2026, 4:00pm-5:30pm
PT January 14 - Creation as an Original Blessing and the Springboard of Awe and Wonder January 21 - Sacred Mother Earth: The Holiness of Creation and Recovering the Cosmic Christ January 28 - The Cosmic Mass, and the Stations of the Cosmic Christ: Reinvigorating Liturgy and Rituals February 4 - Jesus as a Teacher of Democracy and the Renewal of Education and Values through the “10 Cs” Register HERE |
MONTHLY: Join Matthew Fox and Skylar Wilson of the Order of the Sacred Earth in a free virtual meeting for connection and networking with other mystic warriors. Last Tuesday of every month, 4:00-5:00pm PT.
Join Zoom Meeting HERE, Meeting ID: 886 6530 2478 Learn more at www.orderofthesacredearth.org |
Awakening the Divine Human: An Immersion in the Living Wisdom of Creation Spirituality …a week-long retreat in Sardinia, Italy, May 25-30, 2026 Join us on the sacred
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Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Join Matthew Fox in a 6-Class Course: The Great Christian Mystics, exploring some of the richest and most inspiring mystic-prophets in the Christian lineage, including Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Thomas Aquinas,
and Meister Eckhart. Course includes six modules of pre-recorded lessons. Sign up HERE. |
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