Are You Alone-Or Are You Lonely?

"It's also possible to be surrounded by people and feel profoundly alone. Those two experiences-being alone and feeling lonely-are often treated as the same thing, but science tells us they're very different. Being alone is a physical state: you're by yourself, perhaps working, resting, or intentionally choosing solitude. Loneliness, on the other hand, is a psychological experience. It's the feeling that your relationships aren't meeting your need for connection."

"Loneliness isn't just an emotion; it's a signal. Social psychologists often describe it as similar to hunger or thirst: an internal cue that something essential is missing. From an evolutionary perspective, humans survived by staying connected to others. Feeling lonely was a prompt to reconnect, to move back toward the group. Loneliness isn't a personal failure. It's a deeply human response."

Being alone is a physical state, while loneliness is a psychological experience reflecting relationships that fail to meet connection needs. Loneliness signals a gap between the connection one wants and the connection one has, and functions like hunger or thirst as an internal cue prompting reconnection. Loneliness is not a personal failing but an evolved human response. High levels of digital interaction do not guarantee meaningful social connection; quantity of contact does not automatically produce quality. Many people report feeling lonely despite abundant communication. Loneliness can also subtly change how people interpret the world.

Read at Psychology Today