Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had forgotten what it was like to be alone with my thoughts. I feel as though I am rediscovering a part of my brain that was suppressed by having a boredom-prevention device at my fingertips all these years. Right. Necessity is the mother of all invention. Boredom can be a powerful necessity. If it weren't for the crushing boredom of the suburbs in the 80's, I would never have learned to code at the age of 11.
Loneliness is the same way. It can give people determination to come out of their shell, work up the courage to ask someone out, etc.
Loneliness can be forced on you. I personally moved and since some girls at the new school decided (in the locker room) that I was lesbian, folks stopped talking to me. I found a very small group of friends the next year at high school.
These girls were half correct in their assessment, but that was no reason for the entirety of a school to decide I wasn't worth talking to.
Seriously, loneliness is awful. I should mention that I had no issues asking folks out later in life (when I became interested in such things).
This sort of thing might have been more common pre-internet times. The internet made me less lonely because I found folks I liked to talk to.