Avaa tiedosto - TamPub - Tampereen yliopisto

10
from Helsingin Sanomat and the ET magazine (N = 154). Discourse analytic tools
were used in the analysis of the data.
Many meanings were connected with loneliness and it was interpreted in different
ways depending on the contexts. Older people themselves explained that their
loneliness was the result of diminished social relationships and weakening physical
ability. Also negative attitudes of society towards older people as well as changes in
identity and behaviour with age were interpreted as the causes of loneliness. In the
newspaper and magazine texts the causes of loneliness were explained by a lack of
human relationship and meaning in life, neglect by relatives as well as the low status
of older people in society. Loneliness was also simply described as an inevitable part
of ageing.
Both in the interviews and texts written by the older people and the newspaper
and magazine texts many negative connotations were attributed to loneliness. The
elderly people identified loneliness with uneventfulness and with the experience
of being an outsider. The lonely person may also have experienced that he/she was
unnecessary, useless and worthless after losing his/her place in the community, or
more widely in society. Loneliness is also constructed as an issue that causes anxiety:
loneliness was connected with depression, feelings of insecurity, and longing for
earlier human relationships or unattainable dreams. It seemed that it was difficult
to verbalize and describe loneliness, and so different metaphors and quotations were
used. The descriptions of loneliness were characterized by some kind of stagnation.
Loneliness was often considered from the position of an outsider in the newspaper
and magazine texts. The descriptions of loneliness and the meanings that were given
to it were often strong and sometimes even dramatic. Loneliness was also connected
with experiences of worthlessness, being an outsider and isolation from other people
and social activities.
Positive loneliness was strongly based on voluntariness in both the older people’s
talk and in the media texts. It seemed that older people felt it necessary to justify a
positive notion of loneliness in many ways. In the newspaper and magazine texts
positive loneliness was permissible only for creative and artistic people.
In the newspaper and magazine texts the responsibility for alleviating loneliness
was heavily debated and it was delegated to society, relatives and the lonely persons
themselves. On the whole, some of the suggestions were fairly naive or perfunctory. In
the older people’s own talk or writings, activities which were possible to do alone were
mentioned as resources for alleviating loneliness or keeping the feeling of loneliness
at bay. However, part of the responsibility for alleviating loneliness was also assigned
to society.
Hanna UOTILA