The phrase "...in the US" needs to be added any time someone talks about this. From what I can tell, Europeans have managed to maintain their social bonds even post-Covid and post-cell phones.
Turns out Haidt & Twenge [0] [see pdf] in 2022 said this:
"PART 1: THE SPECIFIC, GIGANTIC, SUDDEN, AND INTERNATIONAL MENTAL
HEALTH CRISIS:
1.6 The crisis has hit many countries, not just the USA.
The patterns are nearly identical in the UK and Canada, and the trends are similar though not identical in Australia and New Zealand. We do not yet see signs of similar epidemics in continental Europe or in East Asia, although I have not yet found good data from those regions."
and Figure 3. Loneliness at school increased in all regions of the world [sharply] after 2012 [through 2018].
Yes sorry, the article and paper make it clear it's referring to the US.
I usually add "in the US" myself to such HN titles, but I think HN doesn't want us to editorialize like that, even when it removes ambiguity. So next time I'll try putting it in the title and the first post body.
"PART 1: THE SPECIFIC, GIGANTIC, SUDDEN, AND INTERNATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS: 1.6 The crisis has hit many countries, not just the USA. The patterns are nearly identical in the UK and Canada, and the trends are similar though not identical in Australia and New Zealand. We do not yet see signs of similar epidemics in continental Europe or in East Asia, although I have not yet found good data from those regions."
and Figure 3. Loneliness at school increased in all regions of the world [sharply] after 2012 [through 2018].
[0]: "Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31268222