Being alone may not be that bad.
Frequent studies about loneliness being a global epidemic may be doing more harm than good. Researcher Micaela Rodriguez from the University of Michigan has found that solitude is overwhelmingly depicted as negative.
“Exposing people to these sorts of messages that the dangers of being alone impacts how they think about being alone,” Rodriguez said. “So these messages have, they’re consequential for our attitudes and our beliefs.”
Rodriguez studied 144 news articles, and what did she find? Solitude is overwhelmingly depicted as a negative or even a dangerous state.
Rodriguez says messages like that may actually be counterproductive.
