Assignment #4

For today's assignment, I was told to listen to one of the 6 minute english podcasts by BBC Learning English and to make a summary of it. 1 title caught my attention: "Is Loneliness in Our Genes?", so I decided to listen to it. Here's my summary:

Humans naturally crave companionship of others. It has helped us get a lot of things done. Perhaps, that is why we feel negative when being alone. There are a few statistics regarding loneliness. It turns out that some people feel lonely more easily than others. It is in their genes. One explanation to it is that it helps them to tolerate being lonely for a longer time. Also, studies have shown that people nowadays are not significantly lonelier than people from 10-20 years ago, before social media was invented. It shows that social media does not bring people further away from each other, causing loneliness. Another fact is that Sweden is technically the country with the loneliest people, with about half of their households being single. It is not uncommon, since single-occupancy apartments are quite affordable there, and the Swedes usually move out of their parent's house once they graduate high-school. It is also possible to get loneliness from other people. It is possible to "catch" loneliness from interaction with negative people.

I have never been good with closing statements, But this is my view on loneliness; in this ever more-efficient world, interaction with other people does not equal NOT feeling lonely. It is the quality of the interaction that prevents us from it.