A staggering 22% of millennials (aged 23 – 38) surveyed by YouGov say they have no friends, while less than 1/3 say they have at least 10 friends.
Meanwhile 30% of Millennials say they ‘always or often feel lonely.’
According to the New York Daily News,
Even if younger Americans are overstating their isolation, the jarring numbers reflect long-term rising trends in loneliness. Studies have indicated that loneliness has myriad negative mental and physical health effects.
“Strong social relationships support mental health, and that ties into better immune function, reduced stress and less cardiovascular activation,” Debra Umberson, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas, told Time magazine in 2015.
Oddly, 25% of Millennials surveyed also said they don’t have any acquaintances.
Is social media to blame? As the Daily News points out, “a 2018 study out of the University of Pennsylvania linked usage of apps like Facebook and Instagram to social isolation. “Using less social media than you normally would leads to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness,” the study’s author, psychologist Melissa Hunt, said at the time.”
Meanwhile, according to Vox, many 30-somethings have a hard time making new friends as they get older, as their lives become busier and friends move away.
More recently, in a 2016 paper, researchers in Germany found a peak of loneliness in a sample of 16,000 Germans at around age 30, another around age 50, and then increasing again at age 80.
“We don’t quite know why this is happening,” said Maike Luhmann, a psychologist who researches loneliness at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and co-authored the paper. –Vox
“So most of the previous research has focused on old age, and for good reason, because it’s when loneliness levels are high,” said Luhmann, who said the larger point was that “researchers have ignored that loneliness can happen at any time.”
Is loneliness hazardous to your health?
According to a 2015 meta-review of 70 studies, loneliness has been linked to higher blood pressure and heart disease – and increases risk of dying by 26%.
“As long as we then do what we should do — reconnect with people — then loneliness is a good thing,” said Luhmann, adding “It becomes a bad thing when it becomes chronic. That’s when the health effects kick in. And it becomes harder and harder to connect with other people the longer you are in the state of loneliness.”
Of course, who needs friends when you’ve got $12 avocado toast?
Meanwhile – the next generation has problems of its own:
The suicide rate for children has doubled in the last decade. More children now take their own lives than die in auto accidents.https://t.co/CrhSAZhHJd pic.twitter.com/QodGEbPrDA
— THE LONG VIEW ⚫️ (@HayekAndKeynes) August 5, 2019
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Chilling charts. At least fewer car accident deaths for children is good news. Kiddy car seat regulations and safer cars?
I went through a big spiel about losing my sons plastic car seat toys. Looked up a bunch of sites looking for this image.
All for this.
To ask why you are now Key Set Susie, which makes Whosie Susie seem stupid.
Since that took a while to accomplish, I feel stupid.
Thus, partial an on ymous ness.
Key Set.
It’s because I have to type out on my iPhone. TV and internet out (again)
So my preset keyset comments are not automatic. Frustrating as two bars reception gives me dialup modem speed.
“Old Stray Dogs and Jesus are the Only Friends I Got” by Paul Thorn. I met him at a Mississippi meeting hall and smoked under the old dead oak tree he mentions in the song.
Define “Friends”! Are we describing, facebook friends, social media individuals, neighbors, business associates, customers, acquaintances or a person that you trust with your life? Be more specific if you can.
My advice from wisdom and self practice is to go out. You don’t need to talk to people at first. You need to repeatedly show your face.
Society conditions you to think of excitement. You have to reject that. You get more excitement at home watching TV.
I go out at least 3 times a week. Many times I don’t want to. It’s just like exercise.
But they are all content with 769 “friends” on Facebook and the like.
This is bleeding onto adults.
At social events, everybody with a smartphone cant seem to resist checking it out, at the slightest lull in conversation, in an escape from mundane, familiar things.
Boredom perhaps, but more accurately, attention deficit syndrome, when the stimulus doesn’t hold them or keep them locked in and focused on who or what is present.
You can see it with 4 youngsters at a mall food court table.
I thought they were playing euchre. Nope.
All bored with meaningless conversation attempts to connect, and hold interest.
Loss of focus.
Easier to bring up another crack pipe hit of the latest updates on keyboard & screenshot “social” media platforms.
Or mindless game apps, on the phone or tablet.
ALL, WHILE IN THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY.
It’s a workplace problem, too.
Huge one.
And many of the yutes who do that religiously have very poor P2P communication skills.
Repetitive, willingly distracted.
Try gathering 6 of them in a room for an hour, and take their phones away, to try initiating logical conversation among the group.
Watch how fast the crack addicts get fidgety, and ask for phones back.
Full disclosure. I’ve been guilty of it too at times.
If I forget or lose my cell phone, I feel naked without it.
The one place where I love disconnecting the electronic tether is on weeklong escapes, out in nature, camping, hunting, shooting, fishing, trekking, etc.
Another place: golfing,or working on something with good friends.
In those settings, it’s frowned upon
But upon return we play catch up.
What did we miss?
Electronic zombies, to one degree or another.
Those who aren’t, you have a freedom that is enviable.
Maybe someday soon.
Until then, well, it’s how I read TBP and post comments.
Sigh…
My old man is up in heaven,
shaking his head.
Books! Read books, son!
And toss out that TV, too!
I hear ya, Pops. I feel you.
Give Ma a hug for me.
Miss you two.
Sometimes, God literally opens our eyes. Then, we see.
At 3 a.m., when the silence falls over the Ozarks in waves pulsating with the chirrups and garrumps of nature’s background accompaniment, there is a sense of growing awe and intensity in the stars in my night sky. They, like the Rocks of Ages, are calling His Name Holy.
I’m “Pops” in a way, certainly agree with him, but I’m still kickin´. Read all the time, got one of those stupid phones at my dtr-in-law´s insistence, it’s handy, but I never take it out of the house. I spend my time with grandchildren, local folks I encounter at the store or in the square (small town) and many old friends all round the world thanks to the WhatsApp thing. Other than that (and the local bank app), I use the camera sometimes. But never, never will it be a substitute for human contact.