The Future of Social (Dis)Connection

Over the next decades, the nature of and possibilities for social connection will rapidly evolve with advances in artificial intelligence, mixed-reality technologies, and pervasive digital integration. Accordingly, psychological science must update how it conceptualizes and measures social connection. Here, we advance a three-part conceptual framework for understanding social (dis)connection in contemporary and future environments. First, we situate social experiences within a dynamic relational ecosystem—a system of interaction partners and channels, ambient social cues, and sociocultural contexts that together shape connection. Second, we conceptualize “alone” and “together” not as binary states but as a gradient shaped by level of physical copresence and communication (shades of aloneness and togetherness). Third, we conceptualize discrete social interactions as multidimensional, characterized by features such as interaction partner, relationship type, medium, temporality, engagement, and volition. Building on this framework, we propose five testable predictions about how social (dis)connection may evolve in the coming decades: the decoupling of objective and subjective connection, the erosion of “pure” solitude, the increasing effortfulness and value of in-person interaction, the fragmentation of shared reality, and the growing taken-for-grantedness of connection. We conclude by discussing methodological and applied implications of this framework.