Young people are lonelier than ever

Grimshaw thinks the lack of meaningful human connection on social media and transitioning from school age into being a young adult means in person meetings come to a halt. “When you’re in school, you’re face to face with people every day,” she says. “Then you leave and it’s much harder to keep up with people since you’ve got your own lives. It makes it so that we have to feel lonely, even though we’re in a world with so many people.”

Tam Adisi, a 24-year-old living in Manchester, found that moving around for their career and university caused some feelings of isolation. “I find it hard to find the right people to connect with and who can see me and understand me,” they say. “I think being a black, queer, non-binary person makes that more difficult. I find that a lot of my interests, the way I live my life and the things I want out of my friendships are kind of different from what the majority wants.”…

The lack of emphasis on community is often blamed on the age-old sentiment that romantic relationships are prioritised over platonic relationships in Western culture. Adisi thinks that’s over-played – it has more to do with a generational aversion to intimacy, she says. “People still struggle with loneliness and not feeling connected in those relationships, too. There’s a lot of societal pressure to not have those needs and value hyper independence instead, which is the opposite of what’s needed to have meaningful connections,” she explains. “It can feel easier to have more superficial connections instead of doing the work it takes to overcome that conditioning [or] instinct.”