Loneliness can be one of the most painful human emotions. It is not just the absence of people but the absence of connection. You can be surrounded by others and still feel unseen, unheard, or misunderstood. Loneliness is not a flaw. It is a signal. It is your inner self asking for something deeper than company. Here are five things to remember when loneliness begins to feel too heavy to carry.
Leif is a Friend, a wearable AI chatbot that hangs around your neck. He looks like a small white pebble with an eerie, glowing light in the middle. According to Leif, his purpose is to help me enjoy life day-to-day, notice patterns, celebrate growth, and make intentional choices. To do this, he records whatever I say to him. Or, as he puts it: I want to hear about your day, Madeleine, all those little things.
The three plays aren't linked narratively as I wanted audiences to be able to experience them as individual works. Beginning tells the story of a couple on the edge of 40 who have just met and the 100 minutes it takes them to kiss. Middle is the story of a late fortysomething couple whose marriage hangs in the balance at 4am. In End, Alfie and Julie must decide how to live the end of their relationship.
Because of work, we had to move about four hours away. Since then, we have felt increasingly isolated. I tried to call weekly, visit often and send gifts for every holiday. About a year in, I realized we were initiating all the contact and tried a little experiment. We stopped calling them. It took more than eight weeks for anyone to contact us. His mother calls his other siblings who live elsewhere every week, but not us.
The first year we lived in the US, we were in a gated community with other young families. Everything felt new and exciting - an adventure - just what we wanted. We arrived in the summer, and I remember loving the sun, constantly being at the pool, and spending endless hours with Freddie and the other young families in the neighborhood.
Popular media has made loneliness look bad, but is it really? Author and psychologist Ethan Kross explains his study of loneliness, finding that it is actually our response to loneliness - rather than the act of being alone itself - that has negative effects. If we reframe loneliness as an opportunity instead of a threat, it can have surprising benefits for our creativity, well-being, and relationships with ourselves.
Have you ever caught your cat staring out the window as you grab your keys, their eyes wide and expectant? That moment tugs at your heartstrings. Many cat lovers wonder: if your work-from-home schedule changes and you're away more, does your furry friend feel lonely? As routines shift, it's natural to worry about the emotional world of your feline companion. Let's unravel the surprising truth about cats, loneliness, and how changing work habits can impact your cat's happiness.
When my son was just a year old, our family of three packed up our lives and moved nearly 2,000 miles from our home state of Colorado to Massachusetts. In doing so, we left behind family, life-long friends, and everything familiar to us. It was a decision driven by a vision I shared with my husband: a chance to reset, create new opportunities, and build a future on our own terms. That was more than 13 years ago, and I've learned a lot since then.
People across every age group describe feeling disconnected and alone, missing a sense of community and deep friendships. Our reliance on technology, the fact that we spend our days interacting with screens and talking to bots, not people, working in isolation; the geographic scattering of families and the disappearance of community pillars; the overall shift in our values as a society, with "progress" having replaced contentment; all of it contributes to the situation in which we now find ourselves.
Dear Eric: I retired a couple of years ago. I like many people, I think have realized that most of my friends and even acquaintances were work-related. My family doesn't live close. I've always been a loner, so this doesn't normally even bother me. I recently had a health issue come up where I needed a responsible adult to drive me home from surgery and I had a hard time coming up with someone.
Instead, I was sitting in my Iowa City apartment scrolling on my phone. I passed a video of hundreds of people gathered in Memorial Union Terrace for live music, a photo of old friends clinking margaritas at a Mexican restaurant I used to love ... As I saw more posts from my community back in Madison, Wisconsin, I felt a pang - not of jealousy, but something closer to grief.
Despite living in a hyper-connected world, where social media platforms promise constant interaction and hundreds of "friends" at our fingertips, many people report feeling isolated, unseen, and emotionally unfulfilled. [1, 2] This paradox, where the tools meant to bring us together can instead, in some situations, leave us feeling further apart, is driving an important cultural shift. Increasingly, some individuals are turning not to other people, but to artificial intelligence (AI) companions for a sense of connection and belonging. [3]
As a leader, there are many things you won't be able to share with the folks on your team-and that's just the way it is. For example, you may feel jealousy when you see them laughing and having a good time while you're stuck doing the budgeting. Don't fight these feelings; acknowledge them. Accept the reality that you're the leader, and that many times you'll have to stand alone.
Loneliness is a common experience, and people in loving relationships are not immune to these feelings. Understanding that feelings of loneliness can arise from various sources, such as inadequacy or lost friendships, allows individuals to create proactive strategies and take control.
When we perform in a way that is inauthentic, we communicate information to others that does not accurately reflect how we actually feel. For example, we may say "work is good" and "I had a wonderful weekend with my family" when we actually mean "work is overwhelming" and "I felt really sad this weekend."
A landmark article published last year by scholars Andrew Little and Rachel Meng shook the field of political science by demonstrating that most evidence for claims of a "crisis of democracy" comes from "democracy scores" based on subjective opinions.
