The paradox of loneliness : A qualitative content analysis

The purpose of this essay was to examine the experience of loneliness as well as the strategies used to manage loneliness as described in Swedish podcasts. Swedish podcasts concerning the experience and managing of loneliness were picked using a strategic selection based on several criteria relating to the questions posed by the study. To analyse the empirical data a qualitative content analysis was used, combined with a theoretical framework based on the dramaturgical perspective and stigma theories of sociologist Erving Goffman. The experience of loneliness was found to be paradoxical in nature due to its social and relational elements. The interviewees throughout the study appeared to compare and relate their experience to that of other people. Furthermore, the study found loneliness to be heavily reliant on social interactions and thus did not exist in a vacuum of social isolation. Several coping methods were identified and in turn grouped as either constructive and active or counterproductive and passive