{"id":66,"date":"2018-10-05T09:30:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T13:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=66"},"modified":"2018-10-04T10:23:33","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T14:23:33","slug":"young-adults-loneliest-generation-according-new-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2018\/10\/young-adults-loneliest-generation-according-new-study.html","title":{"rendered":"Young Adults Are the Loneliest Generation According to New Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_67\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-67\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2018\/10\/child-891201_960_720-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Pixabay.com\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-67\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pixabay.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For all that young people tend to talk about how they are constantly connected to their friends through social media, a recent survey conducted by BBC Radio 4\u2019s All In The Mind in conjunction with the Wellcome Trust found that people between the ages of 16 and 24 are actually more lonely than any other age group. A survey of more than 55,000 people found that nearly half of all young people reported that they felt lonely either often or very often.<\/p>\n<p>Claudia Hammond, presenter of All In The Mind, wondered if the results were unique to modern life or if people naturally learned to deal with loneliness as they grew. \u201cI wondered whether there is something about the stress of modern life, or young people\u2019s ability to cope with it, that makes them feel lonelier. Or is youth simply a time of life when people feel isolation most keenly,\u201d Hammond asked about the results.<\/p>\n<p>The survey raises questions about whether or not loneliness is normal for young people, but it did confirm what other researchers have said about social media. It does not cure loneliness. If anything, it may only make it worse. According to the survey, those with more online-only friends felt lonelier than those who had more friends in real life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo help them to connect with others, young people today have social media. They are more connected than ever before,\u201d Hammond said, \u201cBut this can bring its own problems. If you\u2019re feeling lonely, looking at pictures of other people appearing to have endless fun isn\u2019t going to help with those feelings of isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Social media has also been shown to decrease a person\u2019s interest in seeking actual human conversation and connection while doing nothing to alleviate the need or replace the intimacy that comes with making real friends instead of merely virtual ones.<\/p>\n<p>While young people tend to spend an alarmingly small amount of time interacting with real people, the internet alone may not be to blame for the high percentage of young people who feel lonely.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Throughout the life course, you begin to realize loneliness is a feeling that doesn\u2019t last forever,\u201d Hammond said. \u201cYounger people experience loneliness more intensely because it might be the first time they\u2019ve experienced it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The age group with the highest loneliness rates, ages 16 to 24, supports this theory. It is during their late teens and early 20s that most people go to college or start their career. This often means leaving home and the support structure of a person\u2019s hometown behind. Whatever the cause, the issue is clear, and a solution is needed. One can only hope someone finds it soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For all that young people tend to talk about how they are constantly connected to their friends through social media, a recent survey conducted by BBC Radio 4\u2019s All In The Mind in conjunction with the Wellcome Trust found that people between the ages of 16 and 24 are actually more lonely than any other&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,23,2,31],"tags":[27,22,52,51,34],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children-and-family","category-electronics","category-mental-health","category-teens","tag-electronics","tag-loneliness","tag-social-media","tag-technology","tag-teens"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Young Adults Are the Loneliest Generation According to New Study<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recent survey found that young people tend to be the loneliest of any age group despite having the largest number of virtual friends.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Young Adults Are the Loneliest Generation According to New Study\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent survey found that young people tend to be the loneliest of any age group despite having the largest number of virtual friends.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2018\/10\/young-adults-loneliest-generation-according-new-study.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Cup 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any age group despite having the largest number of virtual friends.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2018\/10\/young-adults-loneliest-generation-according-new-study.html","og_site_name":"Daily Cup of Wellness","article_published_time":"2018-10-05T13:30:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-10-04T14:23:33+00:00","author":"Stephanie Hertzenberg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/files\/2018\/10\/child-891201_960_720-300x200.jpg","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2018\/10\/young-adults-loneliest-generation-according-new-study.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2018\/10\/young-adults-loneliest-generation-according-new-study.html","name":"Young Adults Are the Loneliest Generation According to New 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