Young people starting their adult lives are the most digitally connected generation, but also the loneliest.
A nationally representative survey of more than 4000 people found those aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to be lonely, followed by people aged 45 to 54.
Jeremy Wong, 22 (left), Sei Shin, 20, (centre) and Clare Fitzgerald, 22, are among the two in five young adults who are lonely.Credit: Nikki Short
Nearly one in four young adults said they always or often feel lonely, compared with 15 per cent for the general population.
In total 38 per cent of young adults are lonely based on the international standard devised by the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr Michelle Lim, the chair of Ending Loneliness Together and the report author, said loneliness had been historically trivialised and misunderstood, but it was damaging to physical and mental health.
“There has been an acceleration of robust scientific evidence that says loneliness itself is actually a really serious issue, and it’s now increasingly identified as the next public health priority,” Lim said.
The research will be presented on Monday by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Liberal MP Bridget Archer, the co-chairs of the Parliamentary Friends of Ending Loneliness, which formed in 2021.
The finding that young people are more likely to be lonely contradicts a common misconception: two out of five people surveyed thought loneliness affected only people aged over 65.
Lim said young adults faced pressure to maintain existing friendships and to make new ones as they transition from school to further education and employment, and social anxiety could get in the way.
While young people might be socially active, Lim said they tended to go for quantity over quality, and maintain many weak friendships rather than a smaller number of strong relationships.
Clare Fitzgerald, 22, from southern Sydney, agreed that you can feel lonely while being surrounded by people. She lives with her family, has a boyfriend and has other friends, but sometimes feels distant from other people.
“There are always going to be people who you’ll never develop a deep connection with because they’re just a completely different person to who you are,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s totally fine but if you’re in a group setting, it can feel like ‘I’m around all these people right now, but I just feel so unseen’.”
Fitzgerald said attending university online during the COVID-19 pandemic was the loneliest time. She also had a falling out with her close circle of friends from school, and has had to cultivate new friendships.
Lim said social media addiction was another risk factor, though social media use itself was not. Social media addiction is defined as a preoccupation and compulsion to excessively engage in social media platforms despite negative consequences.
More than one in four people aged 18 to 24 reported social media addiction, followed by one in five aged 25 to 34. The survey found 16 per cent of people who felt lonely also reported social media addiction, compared with 9 per cent of people who did not feel lonely.
“It’s not how much we use it, it’s really related to how you use it,” Lim said.
Sei Shin, 20, said her relationship with social media and digital content like TikTok was “pretty unhealthy” and her use escalated when she did not have an in-person social outlet.
Shin moved from Newcastle to Sydney after school and is living with her sister in Newtown. She is in her second year of university and has found it hard to make friends despite always attending in person.
“I thought that it would be really easy to make friends at uni, but it’s hard because I’m not very good at putting myself out there and it doesn’t really feel like people at uni want to put themselves out there either,” Shin said.
“I’m wanting to be more confident and feeling bad about the fact that I’m not, and just really longing for a friend.”
Shin said some of her old friends had recently moved to Sydney, and she was catching up with them.
Jeremy Wong, 22, from south-west Sydney, said working full time and commuting to the city made it hard to find the time, and all his friends were busy too.
“I tend to just get caught up with things or get really tired after work, and if I’m forgetting to make those connections, it can be quite lonely,” Wong said.
Professor Thomas Astell-Burt from the University of Wollongong said his separate research showed a modest amount of parkland nearby can reduce the odds of becoming lonely over four years by a quarter. Among people living alone, the odds of becoming lonely drops by a half.
Lim said most people relied on friends and family, but community was also important, particularly knowing your neighbours and being able to ask them for help.
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