This seismic shift in lifestyle that Klinenberg presents was named as the #1 Idea That is Changing Your Life by TIME Magazine. “We've come a long way in our attitudes about sex and relationships,” he writes in the column. “Now that living alone is more common than living with a spouse and two children, isn't it time we learned to respect the choice to go solo, too?” We can do this, he says, by thinking critically about the negative stereotypes associated with being single and realizing that many of them are untrue. People who choose not to be coupled up tend to be more social and active in their communities than their married counterparts, Klinenberg points out—thus disproving the belief that singles are often selfish, isolated and anti-social.
Klinenberg is a professor of Sociology at New York University. In addition to Going Solo, he has also written two other books: Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago and Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media. In his writing and speeches he dissects the biggest societal changes of our times. He explains that solo living is one of the biggest lifestyle shifts we have seen in decades, and that the effects of this change impact our personal lives, our families, our cities, and our economy.