25% of young Americans aged 18 to 24 eat every meal alone—'a virtual doubling of what it was two decades ago,' expert says

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https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/14/25percent-of-young-americans-aged-18-to-24-eat-every-meal-alone.html

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I’m guessing they don’t want everyone knowing their only source of food is hot pockets.

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38

♫ Alone Pockets ♫

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Part of why I make it a point to cook for my people as often as I can

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I tried cooking my people but the neighbors complained.

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You really need to remember to clean the space dust off your books.

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i wish i had people to cook for

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I mean... through the 18-24 area, I pretty much ate every meal alone.

Still do at 38.

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Did you go to college?

I'm close-ish to your age and college is the reason I basically never ate alone. When I was in the dorms, my roommate or friends and I almost always went to the dining halls together. If I had to catch lunch on my own due to a weird schedule or whatevs, I'd chat up somebody new and (hopefully) make a friend. Then when I was in an apartment, my roommates and I ate together to save money. But I went to a school with a big campus, far away from where I grew up.

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When I lived in my old apartment in college me and my roommates would share dinner to save money

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Went to college, roommates were introverts who ate in rooms because my college didn't have dorms, so just apartments where a bunch of us had spread out. I think the most I ate with others was lunches where there were a lot of people in a student lounge, but that's one of those not anyone eating together, just where everyone cycled in and out and whoever happened to be eating was eating there.

But being commuter college means that lunch was the only time the dining hall was open so otherwise, pretty much eating on own 90% of the time.

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I’ve always eaten alone. Even as a child we never did family dinner - it was quickly feeding me so that my father could eat.

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The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke

The authors present quantitative data to demonstrate how American middle-class families have been left in a precarious financial position by increases in fixed living expenses, increased medical expenses, escalating real estate prices, lower employment security, and the relaxation of credit regulation.

The result has been a reshaping of the American labor force, such that many families now rely on having two incomes in order to meet their expenses. This situation represents a greater level of financial risk than that faced by single-income households: the inability of either adult to work, even temporarily, may result in loss of employment, and concomitant loss of medical coverage and the ability to pay bills. This may lead to bankruptcy or being forced to move somewhere less expensive, with associated decreases in educational quality and economic opportunity

Among the expenses driving the two-income trap are child care, housing in areas with good schools, and college tuition. Warren and Tyagi conclude that having children is the "single best predictor" that a woman will go bankrupt

Warren and Tyagi call stay-at-home mothers of past generations "the most important part of the safety net", as the non-working mother could step in to earn extra income or care for sick family members when needed. However, Warren and Tyagi dismiss the idea of return to stay-at-home parents, and instead propose policies to offset the loss of this form of insurance.

Warren and Tyagi attempt to overturn the "overconsumption myth" that Americans' financial instabilities are the result of frivolous spending – they note, for instance, that families are spending less on clothing, food (including meals out), and large appliances, when adjusted for inflation, than a generation prior.

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Historical context.

Inflation started becoming a problem in the late 1960s. LBJ wanted to have a massive Vietnam War without raising taxes, so he printed money. Nixon ran as a 'peace candidate' and then tripled down on Johnson's policies. For a while, running the steel mills 24/7 to make bombs was popular with the Unions and Wall Street, but when the Arab Oil boycott hit everything went off the rails.

Jimmy Carter hire Paul Volker to run the Fed; Volker's plan worked but Carter lost in 1980 and Reagan got the credit. Worse, Reagan let the banks print money to fund the 'go-go' 1980s.

In 1968, middle class was one income supporting a family of four. In 1992, when Bush Sr. was done, 'middle class' was two incomes. During the same time, $1 million went from being a vast fortune to what a rich guy paid for a party.

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We should entertain the idea that this is the effect, not the cause, of the problem. That we have cause and effect in reverse.

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wait, what do the other 75% do?

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Oh the other 3/4 can't afford to eat regularly.

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Eat with their two friends.

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“There’s not a single smoking gun,” says De Neve about the growth of this trend.

the spectre of capitalism standing behind him holding a smoking gun:

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Is it really “alone” if you’re on chat?

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The article states that while there are many factors involved, smartphones and social media are key factors.

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Yeah and cup noodles ain’t really something to share with it a friend

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So you are saying one cup and two friends is a bad idea?

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I think it’s cute

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Not if they're girls

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How many of the other 75% wishes they could eat their meals alone?

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I eat lunch mostly alone. Dinners maybe about half or 2/3rds with someone. But I'm well older than 18-24 :(

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Comments in A Boring Dystopia@lemmy.world

One thing I think helped me to get to my ideal weight was living alone. Then I only ate when I was hungry, not when anyone else was eating because I wanted to spend time with them.

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Meals are one of the few times a day where I can fuck off any NOT have to talk to anyone.

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Especially lunch. Apparently, according to some people, it's weird to go to a restaurant alone. 30 minutes of peace where no one bothers me? It's amazing.

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Probably related to education and being broke, yeh?

Working a shit job and having to tolerate roommates doesn’t exactly equate to having time, money, or ability to eat regular meals with friends and family.

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I’m 42 and have been enjoying my lonely meals for at least 20 years…

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Ah, yes, smartphone bad has to be the leading cause. It couldn't possibly be something to do with the fact that, of young adults who still live with their parents, many have worldviews antithetical to that of their parents, and simply don't want the headache of repetitive and predictable conflict when their father starts ranting about how the country is going to shit because of goddamn commies like Joe Manchin, or similar nonsense. And for those who live apart from their parents, it most certainly has nothing to do with the degradation of our working conditions, such that many full-time workers have schedules that are inconsistent from day to day, and week to week, and full-time hours are contingent on having 100% open availability to work, making it exceedingly difficult to sync up the meal time schedules for two working adults. I'm also pretty sure the rising cost of living and stagnant wages also haven't done anything to curtail the ability of young adults to go and eat out with friends. Must be the damned smartphone.

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Oh yes the smartphone a device that lets you talk to one of any billions of people it must be the cause of social isolation /s

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Hey well that's something. Genuinely good news and a genuine improvement over how things were

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in what way? food is a social connection to culture, and meals are cultural participation. i see this and i hear that people are more isolated than they've ever been before, making solving our problems harder and everyone easier to manipulate

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Culture is a spook.

Manipulate

Being more isolated makes it harder to manipulate you, because you don't pick up normie behaviours by osmosis, and corpos target the broadest demographic possible for the attention sucking slop.

If I was surrounded by people who just thought ads were fine, maybe I would be paying for netflix with ads. But I had time alone to develop my own thoughts on the matter and I go to great lengths to block ads for instance. Likewise I don't understand the appeal of microblog social media like twitter/bluesky/masto.

Meals are cultural participation

That's Brainrot. Meals are food and not much more than that. They can be enjoyable, but oftentimes to be truly enjoyable you kinda need to be alone, it just isn't the same diving into comfort food at home vs at a public place lol.

But the trouble is housing prices are through the roof. People are packed tighter than cattle with strangers or staying with families long past due. It ain't right and it does untold damage to the psyche to never have personal space - it is a crime of capitalism that we have a huge, largely untouched planet and empty homes galore while people are forced to surrender all privacy for the privilege of enriching their overlords.

I've been very fortunate in that I've been able to afford living alone in one way or another since 18, and I value that greatly because I wouldn't be half the person I am from an intellectual, emotional, developmental and any other perspective if I didn't have that time.

So to me - I am very glad that young folk are finding a way to carve out a moment to themselves, especially one as enjoyable as mealtime.

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I'm not sure how that's dystopian.

Are you supposed to invite people to your home every time you eat a meal?

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Regularly having lunch or dinner with others is really good for your mental and social health.

At 18-24 it should be a combination of family, partners, and friends.

When I was that age I was spending at least one night a week with friends which included dinner/snacks. Hell sometimes we'd get high or grab some beers and make breakfast to fuel a day of young adult bullshit. Lunches were often with my college social group between classes. And I'd often have a meal with my mom whike taking her to Dr's appointments.

If young adults aren't spending meals with family, friends, or partners on a regular basis they're likely incredibly isolated. Hell this implies they arent even sharing meals with coworkers whether it's lunch or grabbing a bite and a beer after work.

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Makes sense. I guess I'm in the minority or well majority now.

But I think expecting every other meal to be shared with someone else is still too much.

For 18-24 year olds still living with their parents sure. But relationships and partners nowadays are becoming rarer. No idea how frequent going to eat with friends is, but I'd expect it to not be the majority of the time.

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I can't get my kids to sit at the dinner table with us. They prefer eating in their perspective places.

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I remember back in the day eating meals listening to podcasts. It felt lonely....

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