Illustration by The Globe and Mail/iStock
Min Jo, a 32-year-old Toronto-based influencer, started documenting her experience living alone last year. She treats TikTok like a video diary, candidly posting about having no close friendships, taking herself out for dates and recommendations for activities in the city.
In one such video, Jo takes her audience along with her for a Sunday afternoon spent visiting a museum, buying a book and stopping by a park to read on her own.
She’s one of many popular content creators who are showcasing a different kind of lifestyle than we typically see on social media – one of solitude. Dubbed loneliness influencers, these creators claim to have little to no close friendships or romantic relationships, and often document quiet nights at home. As social isolation becomes more widespread, these influencers are finding an audience by making solitude feel relatable.
Another Toronto-based creator, Lana Isa, is one of the most prominent in this genre, with more than 400,000 followers between her Instagram and TikTok accounts.
In recent videos, she chronicles what it’s like “going to the movies alone at 11 pm as a friendless girl” or spending “Friday night as a 24 year old girl that lives alone and has no interest in men or dating.”
Jo began to take content creation seriously when a video from her series called “solo bar hopping” blew up on TikTok in November, 2025, getting more than 220,000 views. In the video, Jo shows viewers her outfit and outlines her plan to go out by herself that evening.
But why do people enjoy watching loneliness content?
“There’s a big appetite for people to see people doing things on their own,” Jo said in an interview. “… It normalizes it and takes away that fear factor.”
Jo believes most of her roughly 10,000 followers between TikTok and Instagram are women in their late 20s and early 30s, a time where she says it becomes harder to make plans as others get married and have busier lives. In a Statistics Canada survey conducted in the fourth quarter of 2024, 15 per cent of those aged 25 to 54 reported always or often feeling lonely – the highest rate among age groups. Those aged 15 to 24 came in a close second, at 14.9 per cent.
During a time when many people are feeling lonely, social media is often associated with a fear of missing out, said Matt McCready, a PhD candidate in communication and culture at Toronto Metropolitan University. Users see others post vacation photos, announce job promotions and document their lives with their partners and family.
But loneliness influencers offer an alternative.
“There’s a loneliness influencer who says ‘I’m alone, but I’m not lonely. I’m really happy being alone. I have total freedom.’ And it almost alleviates that fear of missing out, right? Like you can be alone and still seem to have this fulfilling life,” McCready said.
Toronto-based influencer Min Jo says there is an appetite for people to see others doing things on their own.Min Jo/Supplied
He explains that social media influencers create a kind of connection with their audience by constructing an identity, and sharing unfiltered parts of their lives, such as being emotional or messy parts of their home. Building this “performative digital intimacy” allows an audience to perceive a connection with the individual and can make the influencer’s lifestyle feel attainable to their audience.
Kristi Baerg MacDonald, a psychological associate in London, Ont., says people may feel a kind of parasocial connection with influencers they watch – a one-sided relationship with a figure who does not know that they exist – based on their shared experiences. In this case, that’s the shared experience of being lonely.
Loneliness influencers have drawn criticism from some psychologists, who say the promotion of loneliness and isolation can create risks for healthy human functioning. Psychotherapist Phil Lane warns in a Psychology Today article that some influencers do not clearly differentiate between isolation and occasional solitude. He writes that some viewers may misinterpret or apply this in unhealthy ways.
Numerous studies have shown that people who have have strong social connections are happier, have fewer health problems and longer lives.
Jo is cautious not to promote a lifestyle without close friendships, often speaking about the importance of such bonds in recent videos, and outlining the social benefits of relationships on health. She considers herself to be in a temporary period of “rebuilding her social circle.”
Jo hopes her videos will empower other women to have their own solo experiences, something she believes is important regardless of the other people in your life.
“Even if you do have a friend group, still find time to like date yourself and like, go out on your own,” she said.