A new marketplace has emerged around one of the oldest human emotions. According to Sam Goldstein, a clinical neuropsychologist and expert in child development and resilience from the University of Utah, we are now living in what he calls: “the loneliness economy,” an expanding industry built on selling connection to a society that feels increasingly alone.

Goldstein argues that modern life has quietly monetized isolation. “In a world where people feel more disconnected than ever before,” he writes: “companies have stepped in to fill the void, for a price.” From artificial intelligence companions and therapy apps to rent-a-friend services and pet-rental schemes, loneliness has become both a public health concern and a profitable business model.

Examples are multiplying.

Apps like Replika promise digital friendship tailored to each user’s personality. In Japan, people can hire an ossan, a middle-aged man whose job is simply to listen, talk or walk with clients. In South Korea and parts of the United States, single-diner restaurants and emotional-support services turn solitude into commerce. Goldstein observes that while these products appear to ease emotional pain: “they do so by commodifying what once came naturally, human connection.”

The surge in demand, he explains, reflects a deeper social shift. Remote work, shrinking communities, and the decline of neighbourhood, faith, and family networks have eroded everyday social contact. “Technology has made it easier to communicate,” Goldstein notes: “but harder to truly connect.” The result is a culture where interactions are constant yet shallow, and where loneliness is treated as a market opportunity rather than a communal problem.

Goldstein warns that this economic adaptation comes with a cost. Studies link chronic loneliness to depression, heart disease, and early death, but no algorithm or rented companion can replicate empathy or shared presence. “We are social beings,” he concludes: “and our well-being depends on relationships that cannot be bought.”