She was hardly the first person to be moved by the story. You could tell 100 people that thousands of whales are hunted, starving, and dying en masse right now, and most would probably acknowledge this grim reality with a shrug. But the story of one whale looking for friends but can’t find any because he can’t be understood? The aptness of the metaphor for humanity’s sense of social disconnection is a little too on the nose. If a first-year MFA student wrote 52 as a fictional character, his class would probably call it amateurish and saccharine. The problem is that being lonely is considered amateurish and saccharine in society. Saying “I’m lonely” is to confess to having the entirely unsophisticated need for friends and understanding. We consider these to be juvenile needs and signs of weakness — which is ironic, because loneliness seems to be more common than ever. We are living in what the New York Times calls “ an epidemic of loneliness ,” and the toll that loneliness is taking on public health is only beginning to reveal itself. While older adults are considered the most at-risk for health issues related to loneliness, survey data indicates that millennials report more feelings of loneliness than their older counterparts.