Interesting article in Newsweek about the uptick in loneliness in America. As you would imagine technology shoulders some of the blame (the opening line about the meaninglessness of Facebook friends almost writes itself) but we were also struck by two other passages and how they relate to a Results-Only Work Environment.

First this:

Though more Americans than ever are living alone (25 percent of U.S. households, up from 7 percent in 1940), the connection between single-living and loneliness is in fact quite weak. “Some of the most profound loneliness can happen when other people are present,” says Harry Reis, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester.

The article goes on to talk about how college freshmen feel very isolated during their year even though they are surrounded by people. This reminded us of our years in corporate America, where you could be in a meeting with twenty people and feel like the only human being alive.

This is what the face-time and team-building junkies never quite seem to get. Getting people together doesn’t automatically lead to constructive social interactions. If the meeting isn’t meaningful, then it may do more harm than good.

The other passage that stood out was this bit about the subtleties of face-to-face versus virtual:

Social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace may provide people with a false sense of connection that ultimately increases loneliness in people who feel alone. These sites should serve as a supplement, but not replacement for, face-to-face interaction, [says John T. Cacioppo, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago]. He compares connecting on a Web site to eating celery: “It feels good immediately, but it doesn’t give you the same sustenance,” he says. For people who feel satisfied and loved in their day-to-day life, social media can be a reassuring extension. For those who are already lonely, Facebook status updates are just a reminder of how much better everyone else is at making friends and having fun.

That second-to-last about how social media can be a boon to people who already feel connected is an important point. One of the fears people have when migrating into a ROWE is that they will lose touch with the people they are close to at work. Managers especially worry that their team will lose the “chemistry” that good working groups have.

What they find is that teams that already have good chemistry keep it. Increased reliance on technology can alter the nature of relationships, but it doesn’t destroy them.

Teams with bad chemistry don’t necessarily get worse, but their flaws do become more apparent. ROWE’s critics will say, “Aha!” so technology does cause dysfunction, but we argue that having flaws be more apparent is a good thing. We’d rather know where our weaknesses are then have them hidden by a culture of time and physical presence. Because there’s nothing lonelier than pretending that nothing is wrong.