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We don’t talk about social atomisation, do we? Most of us would be hard pressed to define it. Yet it is reshaping our society in ways we barely acknowledge — fragmenting our communities, eroding our connections, and leaving us isolated in the midst of billions.

British journalist, Douglas Murray,¹ has a great way of illustrating social atomisation. Describing his feelings about his preparation for a public speaking event, Murray said he is getting increasingly nervous about public speaking as he gets older. That surprises me, as I had always seen him as a very controlled and confident public speaker.

He looks for ‘points of reference’ that he might use with a particular audience — some common knowledge about specific people or incidents that he can use to illustrate a point so that his audience ‘gets it’.

He described the feeling of finding a point of reference with someone as like saying, “Great, we must ’av drunk from the same well!” It’s a moment of recognising a unique bond of community based on a shared experience.

Sadly, as time goes by, we have become increasingly ‘separated’ from each other, with fewer and fewer experiences in common to unite us. This is social atomisation, the separation into the smallest unit of society — the atom, the individual.

Michel Houellebecq, French Novelist

Michel Houellebecq² began his literary career in poetry, gaining recognition with his first collection in 1992, and transitioned to novels with notable works such as Atomised (2001) and Submission (2015).³

Houellebecq’s novels are set against the backdrop of the rise of nationalism in France and elsewhere.⁴ One of his novels (Submission) depicts the rise of Islam within France. Nevertheless, his books’ primary focus is on the ‘impact of Western decadence’ on society, rather than any external forces, making the claim that our environment shapes our desires and consciousness much more than we care to think.

In Atomised, under the ‘old order’, men thrived, were held in respect, prospered and supported their families well. Under the current ‘neo-liberal order’, however, this is all compromised. Real wages are down for the majority, but have risen extraordinarily for the few. Houellebecq asks: Where is the ‘new order’ going?

His book depicts the story of two baby boomer brothers with an ineffective father, thus a lack of the stabilising effect of a loving role model. Rather, the brothers are impacted by the sexual revolution. The book ends with the generation that follows on from the two brothers, but sadly, they are so few that there is little to say about them. Michel’s next generation knows nothing of the ‘old world’.

Atomised depicts a number of suicides, indicating that the characters were far from happy or content. There is a profound sadness in the generation of the two brothers. Michel, one of the brothers, never marries. Michel’s almost-lover never marries but has three abortions. The other brother, Bruno, marries and has a child but divorces. Bruno’s almost-lover then commits suicide.

The book raises the question: What are people to one another? All too often, they are merely vehicles for pleasure for each other, to be picked up and dropped off when no longer needed.

Michel Houellebecq was certainly on to something. We don’t like the look of it, but his depiction of our atomised society is spot on – unhappiness, suicide, abortion, the lack of role models and perhaps the most telling of all, an ignorance of the past.

Six Causes of Social Atomisation

I suspect most of us will claim this malady does not apply to us, because we have not consciously initiated any social atomisation. However, if Houellebecq is right, then we are all victims of social atomisation to some degree, but we don’t know it.

There has always been a generation gap, but today it seems wider than ever. The baby boomers remember the ‘old order,’ Judaeo-Christian values, the nuclear family and lifelong fulfilling careers. Today’s generation, by contrast, are taught about the colonial plundering of vulnerable peoples by Western powers, and about ‘first nations’ to which they have little personal connection — while entertainment and personal happiness are presented as the primary goals of life.

Aaron Lynn⁵ catalogues the following six causes of social atomisation:

1. Urbanisation. Fewer of us now live in small rural communities where everyone knows everyone. Because of our vast desert interior, Australia is one of the most urbanised nations in the world with over 80% of us living in coastal cities.
2. Open borders. Everyone is free to relocate and settle where they want and are no longer required to assimilate under multicultural policies. In fact, they are encouraged to retain their cultural norms under the banner of respect and tolerance.
3. Demise of the nuclear family. Under the ‘old order,’ cultural norms were passed down through the family, with mentoring, modelling and the teaching of respect for others and the community. Today, so many can only attest to having experienced bad or absent parents, while doing whatever feels right at the time.
4. Anonymity. Especially online, through the very real fear of identity theft and the reality of hackers stealing our inheritance, we are drilled into being careful to keep our presence online anonymous, and through fear of paedophiles, we never let our children’s faces figure on the internet.
5. Anomie. Defined as a lack of community-based moral guidance, ‘anomie’ describes a condition of instability caused by the breakdown of social norms, standards, and values. It derives from the Greek anomos (lawless), a state of ‘normlessness’ where society fails to provide clear moral guidance, leading to alienation, anxiety, and a lack of purpose.
6. Technology. The internet puts knowledge into every hand where we no longer need an intermediary, the librarian or the teacher, with the effect of increasing our self-reliance rather than mutual support. Adding to these internet-driven problems, the smartphone carries our insularity everywhere we go. It is said that there is a correlation between the introduction of 4G (2011 in Australia) with a significant drop in birthrate as ‘coupling’ took a big hit in the Western world.⁶

Expressions of Social Atomisation

Increasingly we are no longer aware of the society in which we live and work. It is certainly no longer a homogeneous group with a common knowledge base and mutually understood values. We are consumer units to be satisfied. We must prove our individual integrity for every interaction we have with others. Fear is now the driving force, a result of eroded trust and mutual respect.

Society makes it increasingly easy for us to live in our own self-contained bubbles.

As a boy, catching a bus, the conductor yelled “Hold very tight, please!” He or she saw where we were seated, came up to us and took our cash, then called, “Any more fares, any more fares?” Today, I swipe a card, catch the driver-less metro, listen to canned automated announcements informing me, “Doors will open on the right.” Society has been atomised.

When I was a lad and we were being given ice-cream for dessert, I was sent off by my mother with our yellow jug in hand, and coins in my pocket. I’d traverse up the hill to the farm shop, where the kind lady scooped fresh home-made ice-cream into my jug. Back to the family I would go!

Today, I can still walk to the local store, but I have to go to the freezer aisle on my own, select the brand of choice, and go and scan it at the self-service machines that assault my ears with unintelligible canned instructions, then require me to pay with a swipe. Society has been atomised.

Today, the young in particular have lost the art of conversation, of negotiation, and of debate. We are losing the ability to relate to others as real people. We no longer believe it is right to confront others, even for their own good, as it is seen to violate their feelings and privacy. Even if their actions are hurting us, we must respect their rights and never come across as reactionary or complaining. Society has been atomised.

Most of us can no longer assert what we want, preferring to be seen as compliant and submissive. We can’t express how we feel, especially if we are men. Screens now dictate the action; we are merely passive consumers of others’ lives, views and dreams. We have far more interaction with the 2D digital world than with the 3D, or even 4D world of flesh and blood. In fact, we can treat flesh and blood so badly — ‘unfriending’ and ‘ghosting’ them — as if they were mere anonymous acquaintances on our social media. Society has been atomised.

What Can We Do?

“With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.” (Romans 12:1–2, (J.B. Phillips) (my emphasis)

I suspect we will never turn the tide of social atomisation, but every resisting action we take will be a blessing to one of our socially atomised brothers or sisters. First and foremost, let’s wake up to the world around us that wants to ‘squeeze us into its mould,’ learning to identify the social atomisation that has occurred in our own lives and call it out.

Social atomisation has taken root as it taps our natural inclination towards ‘comfort and convenience.’ There is nothing wrong with comfort and convenience — but not at the high cost of our own atomisation. The train driver whose train is now driverless has lost his job. The bank teller’s career has now also vanished because we have been programmed to no longer use cash. We justify comfort and convenience by telling ourselves we will use the time saved to volunteer in the community — but do we?

In constructing this essay, I am challenged to adjust my own lifestyle. I am not pointing the finger at anyone! No, I am deeply challenged myself by social atomisation, particularly as it is so infrequently acknowledged in society. Life goes on as if ‘nothing has happened’; it’s ‘business as usual’.

I will try to use the phone when previously I might have texted. I will try to visit when previously I would make a phone call. I will seek to value my flesh and blood connections more intentionally. When I feel that I have been ‘let go’ by someone, I’ll seek to make the first move, to put the relationship back on the rails. I will seek to transform mere acquaintances into genuine friendships. I will seek to dispel ‘fear of being hurt’ with ‘trust and confidence’ in others.

“Practice hospitality to one another (those of the household of faith). [Be hospitable, be a lover of strangers, with brotherly affection for the unknown guests, the foreigners, the poor, and all others who come your way who are of Christ’s body.] And [in each instance] do it ungrudgingly (cordially and graciously, without complaining but as representing Him).

“As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment), employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God’s many-sided grace [faithful stewards of the extremely diverse powers and gifts granted to Christians by unmerited favour].

“Whoever speaks, [let him do it as one who utters] oracles of God; whoever renders service, [let him do it] as with the strength which God furnishes abundantly, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ (the Messiah). To Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever (through endless ages). Amen (so be it).” (1 Peter 4: 9-11 Amplified Bible) (my emphasis)

Finally, if I am to call myself a ‘Jesus follower,’ then I must seek to be like Jesus. “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28) . I want to be known as one whose passion is service of others, rather than one seeking to be blessed, served, and entertained.

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Image via Adobe.

Footnotes

1. Murray, Douglas (2022, April 25). “Douglas Murray on atomisation of society”. Benqu. [Video]. YouTube. [↩]
2. Gouldthorp, Timothy (2017). “Solutions to the problems of Western civilisation in the novels of Michel Houellebecq”. PhD Thesis, School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Queensland. https://doi.org/10.14264/uql.2018.41 https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:692104 [↩]
3. Dellinger, Paul (2024). “Michel Houellebecq”. EBSCO. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/biography/michel-houellebecq [↩]
4. This section is based on: Yenor, Scott (2021, December 3). “Houellebecq, Atomised: The Problem of Modern Decadence” (Video 1). Scott Yenor. [Video]. YouTube. [↩]
5. Lynn, Aaron (2020, February 10). “Social Atomisation”. Aaron Lynn. https://aaronlynn.com/productivity/social-skills/social-atomisation/ [↩]
6. Burn-Murdoch, John (2026, June 11). “Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once”. Financial Times. [Video]. YouTube. [↩]