Welcome to The Newsfeed.

A few years after loneliness was declared a national epidemic, people began getting together in Seattle to practice socializing with others in the same way skills like dance are taught and practiced.

Multimedia journalist Jaelynn Grisso has the story.

In 2024, Andrey Sklyar created an event with a novel concept.

Maybe socializing could be practiced?

He got strangers together to practice talking to each other and build confidence in the same way he'd seen happen as a ballroom dance instructor.

Someone that started off not knowing how to hear the rhythm or move their body or connect with somebody in a dynamic way to people look at me and they think, "oh, they're so natural."

Well, it's natural because they've practiced a lot.

He named it Decent Social Skills and created exercises like one in which participants strike up a conversation and others roleplay responses.

His desire to create this space came from loneliness and a lack of connection, both for himself and others.

I found myself isolated after a series of events, and at one point, that loneliness kind of swelled to a max and I asked, "what would make all of this worth it?"

He thought the answer could be helping others who are isolated, so he volunteered for the King County Crisis Hotline, which led him to the idea for the meetups.

A lot of times I would talk to people and I would ask, "is there anyone that you could talk to besides us?"

And the story was pretty common across the board, where it was like, "no, I just got out of something toxic, but now I'm alone," or "no, I just recently moved and I don't know anybody."

If people had the skills to make their own friends, they wouldn't need to call the crisis line as much.

Next time we'll look at how physical touch affects loneliness.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thank you for watching The Newsfeed.