What we’re seeing is that there’s something about our society that’s isolating us. Even as we’re becoming materially well-off, we’re becoming relationship-poor, and it’s affecting our health, our well-being, on many levels.
You don't need to look far.
Compare this neighborhood:
To this one:
Only one of these neighborhoods allows you to organically meet and socialize with your neighbors. The first one, you hop in your car, and drive away to some starbucks at a coffee shop several miles away, and then don't talk to anyone there. If you don't own a car, you're shit out of luck. The second one, you take a 2minute walk to the coffee shop across the street, go there every day, and because you consistently go to the same place every day, the chances of you talking with and socializing with others is far higher. In the second one, there is a park with lots of shade. It has an actual place for you to spend time and exist.
Only one of these neighborhoods doesn't have this flaw:
You live in a place—we’ve built the placeless society, and you have very little interaction with people. But the way life used to be, and the way life still is in those thriving neighborhoods, there’s a lot of the similar dynamic going on that you would have seen in those towns in the Wild West.
The way we design our cities is half the problem. Mixed use/density development is the solution for this half of the problem.