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Is Britain Getting Lonelier?


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[url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7755641.stm"]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7755641.stm[/url]

I would not take that survey as gospel simply because three of its four indices only reflect the breakdown of so-called [i]family[/i] communities (marriages, people living in rented accommodation, being in it for less than a year). The one about living alone is a more complete, but still far from foolproof, measure of loneliness.

This is strongly reflected in its point about increased student populations contributinig to loneliness. Er hello, most students are far from "lonely", in fact many students have the best social lives of anyone in the country! Most don't have families close at hand, but their networks of friendships are often much wider-ranging than is the case in traditional family units, who often socialise with a very limited circle of people.

Social networking sites, society groups, employee lists etc. all provide communities that were relatively lacking 30 years ago. In addition it is much easier to travel to meet people than it was 30 years ago, even when the credit crunch is factored into account.

In short, it's far from being as bleak as the article suggests because while traditional sources of communities have declined, new ones have sprung up to offset this.

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