online communities open us up to the outside world, but can also make us feel

lonelyer. From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Lily

Jamali the COVID-19 pandemic forced a lot of us to stay home without the

chance to socialize in person. Technology allowed us to stay in touch. Social

media platforms helped connect us with the outside world. There was Zoom and

House Party and remember Clubhouse, but many Americans still struggle with

loneliness. Even now, as life has somewhat returned to normal, younger Americans

are twice as likely to feel lonely than seniors according to research from

Sigma. For more on why, we're joined by Kimberly Adams, senior correspondent at

Marketplace, and host of APM's Call to Mind. In a recent episode of that show, she

explored what role technology plays in people's lives when they're struggling

with loneliness. And she says loneliness is something researchers have been

looking into for decades, way before the pandemic. For some people going to work

or going to school and interacting with people and having that sense of

community there, that was the only social connection that they had. And so when

that was taken away and moved virtually, that did some harm to some people. And

others flourished in that space and really loved that virtual environment. But

what came up again and again throughout the interviews that we did for Call

to Mind's episode on loneliness was that virtual connections are not the same as

in-person real-life connections. Right. And you talk to experts about this too.

How do they recommend people balance those online connections with offline

interactions? It's a starting point. Some experts were telling me that they

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