A growing social media trend known as “loneliness influencing” is drawing millions of views on TikTok, with creators posting videos of themselves spending time alone — drinking Diet Coke on a Friday night, taking solitary walks, or baking a frozen pizza — and presenting solitude as a positive choice rather than a sign of social failure.

The phenomenon was recently examined in The Atlantic, which described videos where people take walks, stare out the window, or bake a frozen pizza alone. The videos, according to the article, are designed to appeal to viewers who “aspire to such heights of banality” while not feeling guilty about it.

Guardian columnist Dave Schilling, a 41-year-old Los Angeles-based writer and humorist, wrote about the trend in a personal essay published June 13, saying he sees the appeal of embracing solitary life, especially after a recent breakup.

“I’m finding myself wondering if maybe solitude is the solution for all this personal chaos,” Schilling wrote.

Schilling said he has a “litany of failed relationships” behind him, including a failed marriage that produced his eight-year-old son, and two breakups in the past year. He described himself as “the king of serial monogamy, a sensitive nerve ending that sincerely tries to make it work even if it definitely isn’t.”

The trend, Schilling wrote, reflects a cultural shift in which digital validation may be replacing the harder work of building real-world connections. “We now have all these tools for interaction that don’t require us to actually try to love and be loved,” he wrote. “We can just post a video of resolute and admirable aloneness and be rewarded for how little we need other people.”

Schilling said he believes the videos are circulating in part because “culture has enforced the idea that being by yourself is socially maladjusted behavior, that you are a bad day away from becoming the Unabomber and fleeing to a cabin in Montana.” The videos, he said, offer an alternative view: “it’s OK to be alone.”

Despite the appeal of solitude, Schilling wrote that he remains committed to seeking genuine affection. “No matter how old I am, how many times I fail, I remain hopeful that I can accept and give actual affection,” he wrote.

The trend arrives amid broader concerns about social media’s impact on mental health and relationships. MSI previously reported that a growing number of young adults are turning to social media influencers for health and relationship advice, with a Pew Research Center survey finding that half of Americans under 50 get health information from social media platforms.