[andrew_eit]

I think the intuition here is: - Being surrounded by people one cannot connect with, increases the feeling that one is socially isolated and an 'outsider'. They are unable to engage with their organic natural (social) environment - Whilst being in 'a forest alone', offers the person a chance to engage with their natural environment and more easily connect with it, just by being there. You don't have to do anything but just exist in it. In a way you are accepted and do belong to that environment (genetically/instinctively). So it acts to counter feelings of 'not fitting in'.

[Name_Chawps]

What I object to is this: "the disconnect with nature, oneself and to a lesser extend the community". No, loneliness is not a disconnect with nature or yourself. It's a disconnect with the community.

[throwaway13337]

The focus on nature might be a product of the time we live. However, the idea that loneliness is due to feelings of alienation beyond just interpersonal is a powerful one.

This is to say that loneliness can be thought of as not just a sense of lack of connection to other people but a connection to the world. This loneliness is evident because of our lack of consistency of our actions with results. People have a 'back to nature' kind of philosophy when they talk about it because that is the most common way to find the consistency - farm to table and all that.

But I think it's more broad. For example, Minecraft has the kind of consistency that makes a person feel more connected to, at least, that world because it is participatory and makes a kind of intuitive sense that our normal lives lack.

I know it seems reaching to correlate the two - in some way, it is. However, the thing a lonely person lacks is more than just an empty person to talk to. It's a deeper purpose which can be often found in activity with other people but isn't limited to it.

Some of the least lonely people are those with projects they are passionate about. They have a connection to the world that feels consistent but it isn't other people.

[kipchak]

I think the focus on nature might be a byproduct or reaction to modern jobs, technology and creature comforts decreasing the participation people have with the world around them. This makes it easy to want to return to a time (real or not) where people lived harder but more fulfilling lives, with camping and games offering ways to act out this ideal.

Of course a desire for a return to nature is not necessarily "modern", see for example Walden, but I think the degree of disconnect has increased to the point it is harder to ignore for a larger number of people.