This is NPR's Life Kit and I'm Andrew Limbaugh.

The pandemic has got us thinking about being alone,

even as some stage starts to slowly open up

and as people gather in the streets to protest,

we still can't quite be with each other,

like we used to, which means even more alone time.

And alone time is tricky.

Even researchers who look at this stuff

don't have a concrete definition

of what it means to be alone.

It was pretty jarring to me for something

that is so much a part of everybody's everyday existence.

There isn't even a really agreed upon definition

about what solitude means.

That's Dr. Robert Copeland,

he's a professor of psychology at Carlton College

who studies solitude.

Sometimes solitude is a moment of peace and quiet.

Other times it manifests as loneliness.

It's like, it's the Goldie-Lawks hype offs.

There's some people to have too much.

Some people connect a little,

...