New Delhi, Oct. 7 -- Over the last few years, clients in therapy have spoken about a gradual decline not only in the frequency of conversations at home and in the workplace, but also in their emotional depth, sustained attention, and intimacy. It's a pattern that I have noticed across gender and relationships, whether people are single, married or partnered.

As a 42-year-old client said, "My life is designed in a way where I'm high functioning but at my core I feel empty. I'm sick of relentless texts on my friend group with no real connection. I feel jealous of my mum and her friends who regularly speak about both mundane and big things, I want that."

A 2026 research paper in Perspectives on Psychological Science titled Sliding into Sil...