Is it cool to have no friends?
Today in Focus

Is it cool to have no friends?

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 25, 202626 min
  • Interview
  • Society

Loneliness influencers are on the rise. When did social media get so unsociable? Jessica Murray explains. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

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Today, are young people lonelier than ever?

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B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 31%A2 35%B1 20%B2 12%C1 1%
  • 87% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 167 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 98 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

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0:00

This is The Guardian. Today, are young people lonelier than ever? Something curious is happening on social media. As a person with no friends,

0:22

here are five things that are socially acceptable to do. Welcome to the Saturday night of a single introvert in her 30s, who also lives alone and I don't have any friends. People are going online to brag about having no friends.

0:34

And I'm at a place where I'm very comfortable admitting that. But these aren't sad videos. They're not tearful confessions. And I have absolutely no girlfriends.

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