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Loneliness in Our Society Today

In: Social Issues

Submitted By erijaz
Words 1765
Pages 8
Erica Garmendez
Research Paper
Loneliness in our Society Today The study of Sociology covers everything that deals with human behavior, including loneliness. Some people experience loneliness in different aspects. Some of these people can be in a crowd full of people and still feel alone. There are other people that can literally be alone, but not feel like they are. This feeling of loneliness affects how people interact with each other and their behavior. I will be researching how the feeling of loneliness drives people to use the internet more often within a group of 10 people. I will focus primarily on social media usage, such as Facebook. I predict that the more social media an individual uses, the lonelier they feel. One way of thinking about loneliness is as a difference between one's desired and achieved levels of social interaction, while solitude is simply the lack of contact with people. There is clearly a difference in the two. Loneliness is more of the way a person feels; if a person thinks they are lonely, and then they are lonely. People can be lonely while in solitude, or in the middle of a crowd. A person is lonely when they want more social interaction than what is currently available. This is why somebody can be alone and not feel lonely. If a person gets too little or too much social interaction, this could lead to feelings of loneliness or over-stimulation.
One study found that although time spent alone tended to depress a person's mood and increase feelings of loneliness; it also helped to improve their cognitive state. Solitude can have positive effects on individuals. Once the alone time was over, people's moods tended to increase significantly. This could vary amongst individuals however; if an individual is always alone then their mood might not increase. What they do while they are alone could also lead to more feelings of

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