Being single is great most of the time, but there are some days of the year that can be harder than others. You’d assume the top offender would be a romance driven holiday like Valentine’s Day, or New Year Eve with all the kissing. However, a recent study found that Halloween is the loneliest day for most singles.
The website Dating.com surveyed 1,000 single adults about their holiday emotions, 80% said they felt lonely on Halloween. 59% said Halloween is one of the hardest days of the year with 57% of those respondents saying it’s worse than Valentine’s Day. Over half confessed to crying after giving candy to trick-or-treaters.
Why Halloween
Halloween itself is built up around group activities. Adding in things like matching family and couples costumes, it’s easy to see why it gets so many singles down. The holiday is also notorious for people snapping photos of their costumes to post to social media. 73% of survey respondents reported that social media compounded their loneliness.
62% of these singles said they rarely admit to how lonely they feel. (Gentle reminder to check in on your “strong” friends). 77% of these single have even pretended to have plans on Halloween.
These numbers speak to a growing “loneliness epidemic,” with people and more people feeling isolated from others. The New York City Health Department found that over 50% of residents say they feel lonely “some of the time.” Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has warned that chronic social disconnection can be as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The existence and rise of certain online communities that are intentionally isolating and damaging like incels is an undeniable result of this as well.
Unfortunately, there are no easy answers for why, in an age where we are more interconnected than ever, so many feel cut off from society. Many health professionals recommend people try to maintain at least small social interactions daily, even if it’s just texting someone hello.
