SHIFTHEADS: 52% of Canadians Feel Lonely Every Week. Are You One of Them?

Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift · Feb 28, 2026 · 10m

Loneliness and human connection have a measurement problem, and the number from Genwell's own Canadian research lands harder than most people expect. 52% of Canadians say they feel lonely on a weekly basis. Not occasionally. Not during hard seasons. Every week. And the research is clear that being surrounded by people does not fix it, because proximity and connection are not the same thing.

The Amazon order in your mailbox, the kiosk at McDonald's, the coffee app that skips the barista entirely: Pete Bombacci's argument is that those micro interactions, the ones being quietly automated out of…