Former U.S Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy visited Charlotte Tuesday as part of a national initiative to address loneliness and social isolation.
Murthy met with community groups across Charlotte, including a stop at the Do Greater Charlotte creative tech lab, where he spoke with a handful of high school students about how social media and the pandemic have increased feelings of isolation.
It's a concern Murthy says he often hears from students.
“They’re concerned that social media is often making them lonelier,” Murthy said. And that it's contributing to their anxiety and to their depression.”
Murthy is leading the "Together Project," an initiative that aims to build connections and communities across America. The project is supported by a $3 million grant from the Knight Foundation who helped organize the Charlotte conversation. Charles Thomas, a project director with the Knight Foundation, said the goal is to foster more connected communities.
“People that are connected ... the more they're engaged in our democracy, the more that they have trust in our democratic systems,” Thomas said.
Morgan Winston, 18, is a student at East Mecklenburg High School, and said she found the conversation meaningful.
“It was great that he cares about it and that he wanted to come here and talk to us,” Winston said. "He was just super engaging, and I learned so much from those conversations.”
Students also called for more community hubs and nonprofit programs to tackle loneliness.
