A team of academics from Swinburne University and VicHealth studied 1,520 Victorians aged 12 to 25, and examined their experience of loneliness, asking questions about their symptoms of depression and social anxiety. The study confirmed that loneliness – the biggest driver behind symptoms of depression – has become a global epidemic tied to the rise of social media.
Here’s what they found: One in four young people – aged 12 to 25 – reported feeling lonely for three or more days within the last week. Among 18 to 25 year olds, one in three – 35% – reported feeling lonely three or more times a week. We also found that higher levels of loneliness increases a young adult’s risk of developing depression by 12% and social anxiety by 10%, according to the WEF.
Adolescents aged 12 to 17 reported better outcomes, with one in seven (13%) feeling lonely three or more times a week. Participants in this age group were also less likely to report symptoms of depression and social anxiety than the 18 to 25 year olds.
There is some evidence that those who are lonely are more likely to use the internet for social interactions, while spending less time on legitimate interactions.
However, some argue that social media can be used to replace offline relationships with online ones, citing one new study. Another recent study found that the relationship between social media use and psychological distress simply isn’t all that clear. Over a six-month period, people who are lonely are more likely to experience higher rates of depression, social anxiety and paranoia. Being socially anxious can also lead to more loneliness at a later time. the study said.
But when lonely people do get out there and socialize, they are more likely to engage in self-defeating actions, such as being less cooperative, while also showing more negative emotions and body language. This is done in an (often unconscious) attempt to disengage and protect themselves from rejection.
Now, doctors are increasingly challenging young people to identify their strengths and learn how they’re important in forging strong, meaningful relationships. Meanwhile, challenging unhelpful thinking and negative views about others is helping more young people learn how to use humor as a strength.
These tools could help young people learn skills to develop and maintain meaningful relationships. And because lonely people are more likely to avoid others, digital tools could also be used as one way to help young people build social confidence and practice new skills within a safe space.
Ultimately, a cornerstone of any solution to the rise in loneliness-fueled depression, will be to normalize feelings of loneliness, so feeling lonely is seen not as a weakness but rather as an innate human need to connect.
When it is ignored, loneliness can have a seriously negatively impact on an individual’s health, especially when it is allowed to persist.
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Polls are driving an epidemic of misperceptions.
Misperceptions are the hallmark of hoaxes, aka polls, studies, and papers.
Troll farms too.
Another site I frequent calls it:
Polleganda – The art of using polls to drive public opinion.
The media are masters of manipulation, especially for those who have never been taught critical thinking.
Notable to me is the number of younger people that prefer to text rather than talk.
Another barrier in place that further reduces meaningful human contact.
When I was that age, I was too busy working, or hounddogging girls, or playing sports to worry about being lonely. The world has lost all sense of what is important.
Your age is showing, in that today, there is no hounddogging of girls due to yes means yes laws and #metoo.
That’s what they want you to believe.
Doom porn.
Fuck that.
The kids make lemonade out of their boomer parents shitty lemons.
Excellent, this will empower the medical industry to release new forms of highly addictive psychotropic meds, that will allow all these lonely smucks to drop all their defense mechanisms, and aimlessly addle through life, with the only fear of being cut off or missing a dose.
you can always tell when someone is on these pills, they strike up a random conversation with anyone who will listen, and then start never ending conversations that you need to walk away from to stop.
At which point there is no recognition that the interaction ever took place.
from the pacifier to the smart screen to the doctor, and then the pharmacist, a perfect coupling of cause->effect->solution->profit
Teenagers have angst. Who knew?