Bowling Alone in the Age of TikTok: Why We Need Community

We live in an age of remarkable technological connection, yet many people experience increasing isolation, anxiety, and loneliness. At the same time, our phones give us instant access to entertainment, information, music, and social media. However, convenience doesn’t always produce genuine community. In fact, the way we consume media can sometimes pull us further away from one another.

Robert Putnam explored this problem in his influential book Bowling Alone, which examined the decline of participation in traditional community activities. Since then, technology has transformed the way we spend our free time. Today, we can stream virtually anything, scroll endlessly through TikTok or Instagram, and customize our entertainment around our individual preferences. As a result, two people can sit next to each other while experiencing completely different digital worlds.

Technology Connects Us—But It Can Also Isolate Us

Certainly, technology offers tremendous benefits. We can listen to almost any song instantly, watch movies whenever we want, and communicate with people across the world. Nevertheless, something can still be lost when we experience everything alone.

Consider the difference between watching a comedy alone on a phone and watching that same movie with friends. In the second situation, you don’t simply experience the movie; you experience the reactions of the people around you. Their laughter becomes part of your experience. Likewise, attending a concert creates a shared experience that listening to the same song through headphones cannot completely reproduce.

Therefore, the problem isn’t technology itself. Rather, the deeper question involves how we use it. Do our devices help us encounter other people, or do they encourage us to retreat further into ourselves?

Catholicism Teaches That We Need One Another

More importantly, Catholic Christianity provides a powerful answer to this problem because it teaches that human beings are made for relationship.

God created humanity for communion with Him and with others. From the beginning, God declares:

“It is not good that the man should be alone.”
— Genesis 2:18

Furthermore, Jesus doesn’t save us by creating isolated individuals. Instead, He calls people into His family, the Church.

The Catechism explains that God created humanity to share in His own life and that this call brings people into communion with Him and with one another (CCC 1, 760).

In other words, Christianity isn’t a private spirituality that we practice entirely by ourselves. Although personal prayer matters enormously, Christ also calls us into a visible community of believers.

The Mass Brings Us Together

This becomes especially clear in the Catholic liturgy.

For example, when Catholics attend Mass, they don’t simply watch a religious program individually. Instead, the Church gathers as one body to worship God.

People sit beside one another—friends and strangers, young and old, saints and sinners—and together they turn toward Christ.

The Second Vatican Council describes the Eucharist as the “source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11). Consequently, the Mass provides something that our increasingly individualized culture cannot replicate: a shared encounter with God and with His people.

Ultimately, the solution to isolation doesn’t require abandoning technology. Rather, it requires recovering authentic community.

So, put down the phone occasionally. Invite friends over. Attend a concert together. Watch a movie with your family. Join a parish ministry. Most importantly, return to Mass if you’ve been away.

Because God doesn’t call us to live isolated lives.

Instead, He calls us out of ourselves and into communion—with Him and with one another.

And perhaps the most important question isn’t simply, “How much time am I spending on my phone?”

Rather, ask:

“Is the way I live helping me become more connected to God and to the people He has placed in my life?”