Modern life is making us lonely and it is something New Zealand needs to talk about. An aging population, more people living alone and the demands of modern life mean more of us - and not just the elderly - are feeling lonely. In the past four weeks more than 650,000 Kiwis have felt lonely, and those aged 15-24 are the loneliest. University of Auckland professor of health sciences Merryn Gott has studied loneliness in the elderly as part of the National Science Challenge 'Ageing Well'. Read more We need to talk about loneliness