The Importance Of Loneliness Among University Students

University is a vibrant place, the freedom of which many adore and cherish, however, it turns out that university life can be far worse to people who cannot cope with loneliness. Recently, a nationwide Canadian survey (American College Health Association, 2016)1 finds out 69% of university student struggled with loneliness during the school year, and sadly, 44% of them said it was difficult to function, due to loneliness caused by their inability to find company. Though it is inappropriate to assert this is the case across the globe, it is not difficult to deduce every undergraduate in the whole world is likely to face aloneness, given similar situation they face: they leave high school, their old friends, their beloved family, they bump into a place that they are not familiar with, then some of them find themselves trapped in aloneness, consequently, in loneliness.

The best way to cope with loneliness, instead of avoiding aloneness, is to convert the feeling of loneliness into solitude. Aloneness is simply the physical state of being

Creativity is regarded as “one of the five core virtues of solitude” (Koch, 1990)7, Bao and Dai (2012)8 found out that solitude has contributed to students’ high study efficiency, especially in Mathematics, Chinese and English in the College Entrance Examination in Mainland China, and Morin (2013)3 also wrote that we can use solitude to practice mindfulness skills to concentrate on one task at a time, for that reason solitude at the office can increase productivity. Given the freedom and lack of distraction in solitary state, it is not a surprise that solitude can improve work performance. The abovementioned evidence proves that solitude offers us an opportunity to rejuvenate undergraduates mind in the midst of everyday hustle and bustle, it thus cultivates creativity, and increases productivity during study and