【中英美文】独处与孤独并不是一回事

Alone and lonely are not the same.

独处与孤独不是一回事。

A common notion is that the loneliest people are those who are alone, it"s important to separate the two.

人们普遍认为，最孤独的是那些独处的人，但将这两者区分开来十分重要。

Kids can be lonely because they can"t see their friends at school; people who have been marginalized can feel lonely because the community doesn"t welcome them in; and older adults can experience loneliness through retirement or death of a loved one.

孩子们可能会因为在学校见不到朋友而感到孤独；被边缘化的人可能会因为不受群体欢迎感到孤独；老年人可能会因为退休或亲人离世而感到孤独。

One of the things that distinguishes between loneliness and isolation is that loneliness has very little to do with quantity, with how many people you interact with, how many groups you belong to. Although there is a relationship (between them), it is not very strong.

孤独和孤单的区别之一是，孤独与数量、与你和多少人来往、与你属于多少团体没有多大关系。虽然（它们之间）有一定的关系，但关系并不是很大。

When it comes to fighting loneliness with social contact, quality is much more important than quantity. Those who choose to live alone or be single or just spend much of their time on their own aren"t necessarily worse off when it comes to feeling alone.

当谈到通过社交来对抗孤独时，质量比数量重要得多。那些选择独居、单身或独自度过大部分时间的人，在独处的时候并不一定感觉很糟糕。