Being lonely and Being alone

We feel entitled to distinguish between being lonely and being alone. Not everyone who is lonely is alone. And not everyone who is alone will feel lonely. From such a perspective, being alone is nothing bad, whereas being lonely appears to be depressing. From a societal point of view, though, being alone also appears to be depressing, given that societal life means being together with others. However, are we really to leave our understanding of being alone to such a societal perspective? And should we not cultivate being together with others as well as being alone?