A sure-fire path to loneliness is “social” media. I avoid it. Most of the time, if someone is worth interacting-with, they’re worth a 1-1 interaction via SMS, phone-call or real life.
I only use social-media when someone has unwittingly attempted to contact me about a “real-world” event (e.g. a celebration) via its messenger-service, rather than by call, SMS or in-person.
I feel far less loneliness for this approach. I have less “interactions”, but the few interactions I do have are actually memorable and worthwhile, and I am not bombarded by unnecessary nonsense, or depressed by inevitable comparison to other peoples’ artificial, curated “perfect” versions of their lives.
Nothing beats being there with a real friend - or even just calling them.
I’d also like to pose a thought for the day. I still remember the very instant, walking round a beautiful woodland years ago, teeming with life and noise but with no other human nearby, that this occurred to me:
One of the most beautiful feelings in the world is solitude.
One of the most horrendous feelings in the world is loneliness.
The only difference between the two seems to be choice - and potentially the knowledge of the former’s finiteness / uncertainty of the latter’s duration.
The reason I say this, is if you live with other people, it is important to savour that time when you get a moment of peace, knowing that they will be back soon, because when your loved ones return, you value them even more, and you find yourself even less “able” to feel loneliness! And if you (or someone you know) lives alone, they might not have that luxury, and therefore might feel loneliness. So if you know of someone like that, perhaps make it a habit to give them a regular phone call or visit. With a little luck, their loneliness turns into the downtime they use to get all their chores done, between the regular calls/visits from their best friend.
