This may not seem like a business topic, but in fact, it may be the most important business topic we discuss all year.

I’ve recently been consumed by the idea of loneliness, solitude and the solution of third places. Those who read Robert Putnam’s warning in his book “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of the American Community,” originally published in 2000, are ahead of me on this. Putnam’s work chronicled the decline in engagement in social groups, religious groups, attendance at public meetings, the frequency of dinner parties, declines in union memberships and more. The book received mixed reviews when it was released, as some critics praised the straightforward, non-clinical language used to speak to all audiences as well as the takeaways for more engagement, while others critiqued the work for not incorporating previous studies on the subject or argued that people were still engaging but in different ways. With another quarter-century’s worth of data points, I think we can unquestionably say Putnam was correct when we see the declining enrollment and engagement of our Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, some religious groups, public meeting engagement and more.

My foray into this space is due primarily to one author named Derek Thompson. He is a staff writer for The Atlantic, and his cover story from the February issue is called “The Anti-Social Century.” I’ve also listened to his podcast on the piece and several other interviews he has done in recent weeks. His 11,000-word essay is the result of months of interviews with many academics who study this subject. The core point comes from a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey they have been doing for 60 years called the “American Time Use Study,” where they ask people how they spend their time. The biggest takeaway from 2023 (the last year with full data) is: Americans are spending more time alone now then at any point in history that we have data for. Add to that that the decades prior to when the research began being filled with community socials, pep rallies, dances, diner hangouts and more, and it’s safe to say that we haven’t spent this much solitary time in the at least the last 100 years.

Early on in his piece, Thompson quotes another key indicator: In 2023 (again the last year with full data), the National Restaurant Association said that in all restaurants, 74% of the sales were for off-premises — so, takeout. Meaning, only a quarter of the business is from sit-down gathering or on-premise sales, and the rest are pick-ups people usually pop-in and grab from the designated food station, in some cases without saying a word to anyone so long as they can find the order with their name on it.

Some people will blame COVID — yes, of course that’s a factor in how some of this accelerated, but we were already heading in this direction. Dinner parties with friends, according to Thompson on a podcast interview with Tim Miller, are down 30% from when Putnam’s research came out in 2000, and Putnam said they were down 45% from the 1950s and 1960s to 2000. The key point on this was illustrated to me by a Brown University researcher that Thompson cited.

Marc Dunkelman was the Brown University author Thompson cited who, in his 2022 book “Vanishing Neighbors,” introduced a three-ring concept for categorizing our relationships. The first ring — the inner ring, if you will — is our family relationships. The second ring is our loose connections, so neighbors, co-workers, fellow parishioners — the village, if you will. The third ring is our outer ring — the tribe, if you will — and includes those we don’t know well but may share interests with, like the other fans at a Red Sox game or movie goers laughing along with you at the theater or those in your political party.

Thompson hypothesizes in his “The Anti-Social Century” piece that because of the phone, our inner ring relationships have never been tighter. Instead of spouses going off to work and maybe grabbing lunch together once a month, everyone I know texts their spouse numerous times per day. Additionally, many people have chat threads with their children, even those living out of the house, and often they have an online chat thread with close friends. The inner ring is tight.

The outer ring has never in the history of mankind connected us so much to our interests. Using social media algorithms, we can cater our online connections to those who have our interests, whether they live in our community or not. A soldier halfway around the globe can have a chat thread on whose fault the Patriots loss was on a fan-heavy chat group. My brother lives in Jacksonville and listens to Boston Sports Talk radio daily. Also, if you only want to find people who have the same political outrages as you, it’s never been easier, thanks to our phones.

What we have lost is that middle ring, that village connection, the neighbors, co-workers, friends. And as Thompson theorizes, that is necessary for healthy communities, because that’s where you meet those with different ideas than you. As Thompson said on a PBS interview, “Where in the inner ring you learn love, and the outer ring you learn loyalty or ideology, I think the middle ring teaches tolerance.” That’s right — when you go to a public meeting you hear other views and learn to compromise, and you get exposed to things you may not in any other place in your life.

So what’s the solution? Third places. Putnam defined these in “Bowling Alone.” Third places are places that aren’t work or home. They are social clubs. The local theater. The nonprofit you volunteer for. And yes, your local chamber of commerce.

The answer is intentional engagement in community, and the chamber is a great way to do that. I will pick up this thread next week with some ways you can engage this winter and spring.

Cory King is executive director of the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber of Commerce.