22% Of Millennials Say They Have No Friends

[hlat]

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22% Of Millennials Say They Have No Friends
by Tyler Durden
Mon, 08/05/2019 - 23:30

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

 

[Chu]

Very sad statistics. Although it's not surprising, given how they have learned to interact with people (if you can call their noses being stuck to their phones "interacting"), based on no real values at all, or worse, values promoting a psychopathic and victim mentality. Many young ones must be suffering because of that, only a minority thriving in that kind of environment where one has no boundaries, no real interactions, no deep conversations, no real caring, while being sold the idea that they have much more freedom, less conditioning and more power than previous generations. OSIT.

 

[Laura]

Not a surprise at all.

Things were not perfect prior to the present times, but the decline of civilization in the years since 9-11 is utterly shocking.

 

[Carl]

This is tremendously sad. Despite the increase of information out there now, the mental/emotional/spiritual prison humans are trapped in just continues to get more sophisticated and all-encompassing. In many ways, it has become more of a hell on earth.

Growing up in a world like this, you have very little to hold on to, very little to aim for and very little meaning.

It seems that it's rarely been great here on Earth. Plenty of previous generations lived lives of loneliness, alcoholism and despair for instance. But now it's gotten so strange I find myself wondering just what is this alien place, and why did we even bother coming here? As Caesar said, humanity is lost. Maybe we deserve it. Or maybe we just need to see first hand how bad things can get when you have complete discombobulation and disconnection from the creative principle, just to know what not to do and how not to live.

 

[Ina]

I realy don’t know how to say what I’m thinking but I do not agree to the sadness and gloom tone of the conversation so far so, here it goes. Friendship is a natural state that one achieves when in harmony with self. You can make friends with plants, animals even rocks or water. Making friends with people is more difficult when one’s is hardened or broken or tired or empty. Not only the millennials ‘suffer’ from this misfortune. Everyone that preponderantly spends time and focusses selectively on mind or body or professional matters alone can find themselves imbalanced and without friends. That was the easy part. Here comes the difficult part, and I would gratefully appreciate help to express correctly. Our times declare friendship as a type of relationship, and friends, as people with whom we form intellectual or emotional bonds. Social and psychological development books, literature and media, describe many types of friendships like true friendships, long term friendships, short term friendships, friendships of convenience and many types of friends like good friends bad friends true friends, friends with benefits, frenemies, and etc. Friendship is classified and externalized. In my opinion if one has no friends one has the best and optimal opportunity to find what friendship is and start building the inner harmony. Once that is achieved, one can start creating friendship.

 

[Gwenllian]

It seems that it's rarely been great here on Earth. Plenty of previous generations lived lives of loneliness, alcoholism and despair for instance. But now it's gotten so strange I find myself wondering just what is this alien place, and why did we even bother coming here? As Caesar said, humanity is lost. Maybe we deserve it. Or maybe we just need to see first hand how bad things can get when you have complete discombobulation and disconnection from the creative principle, just to know what not to do and how not to live.

I think we are here to learn some (harsh) life lessons. And the people who see what is going on and who do value friendship could focus on becoming a better friend themselves? That is what I am doing in my neighbourhood. I feel lucky in the sense that some of my neighbours are open to closer contact and even ask for help if something is going wrong or just because they need someone to look after their animals when they are on holiday.

Someone told me once that immediately after WWII when many people (if not most people) were dead poor that he lived in a neighbourhood where people would take others some soup. He talked about seeing people in the streets with their pots and pans. That's what we need and maybe these young people have to live through some hardship first before realising that they do need other people. FWIW.

 

[Chu]

I realy don’t know how to say what I’m thinking but I do not agree to the sadness and gloom tone of the conversation so far so, here it goes. Friendship is a natural state that one achieves when in harmony with self. You can make friends with plants, animals even rocks or water. Making friends with people is more difficult when one’s is hardened or broken or tired or empty. Not only the millennials ‘suffer’ from this misfortune. Everyone that preponderantly spends time and focusses selectively on mind or body or professional matters alone can find themselves imbalanced and without friends. That was the easy part. Here comes the difficult part, and I would gratefully appreciate help to express correctly. Our times declare friendship as a type of relationship, and friends, as people with whom we form intellectual or emotional bonds. Social and psychological development books, literature and media, describe many types of friendships like true friendships, long term friendships, short term friendships, friendships of convenience and many types of friends like good friends bad friends true friends, friends with benefits, frenemies, and etc. Friendship is classified and externalized. In my opinion if one has no friends one has the best and optimal opportunity to find what friendship is and start building the inner harmony. Once that is achieved, one can start creating friendship.

I'm not sure of what your point is. Nobody has said that it's only millenials who suffer from this. And your theory is fine, but when invaded by the wrong signals, teachings and values, it's not so easy to find out what friendship is and build "inner harmony". At least a few years back there were some good examples to follow, a grandparent, a leader... Some people who weren't about impression management and empty values all the time.

Sure, it's an opportunity for growth, but when you look at society at large, it has become harder to relate to people even at the most basic level. So, no surprise that it is more difficult. Overtly, these are good times, people have it easy, etc. But deep inside, many feel, I think, that they have been sold a lie, the wrong kind of "good". That creates cognitive dissonance, unnecessary suffering and isolation. In the past it wasn't as bad, I think.

 

[MikaelYosef]

This links to a PDF showing a breakdown of the data reported:

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.n...e (Friendship) 164 5.7.2019.xlsx [Group].pdf

While I agree that society is pretty average for everyone right now, as well as the irony in the name 'social media' like it was meant to be a good thing, some caution should still be taken when acknowledging these results. The respondents to the survey were 'YouGov panelists' - you sign up to YouGov, get an email and get paid to do online surveys. From their own website FAQ page:

"The amount of points that can be earned for completing a survey is determined by the length of the survey. Typically, you should earn up to 400 points for completing a 10-15 minute survey. The minimum threshold for redemption is 5000 YouGov point."

5000 points is equal to about $18 USD according to one search, so you might earn $1.44 per survey. For some people it might be worth it with the exchange rate and purchasing power depending on living location. For others, I suspect not and it would mean completing it as quickly as possible without much thought or even truthfulness. The data might be correct for those who did it - but there's a bias in the sample which might be negatively skewing the results of the population.

 

[Ina]

I'm not sure of what your point is. Nobody has said that it's only millenials who suffer from this. And your theory is fine, but when invaded by the wrong signals, teachings and values, it's not so easy to find out what friendship is and build "inner harmony". At least a few years back there were some good examples to follow, a grandparent, a leader... Some people who weren't about impression management and empty values all the time.

Sure, it's an opportunity for growth, but when you look at society at large, it has become harder to relate to people even at the most basic level. So, no surprise that it is more difficult. Overtly, these are good times, people have it easy, etc. But deep inside, many feel, I think, that they have been sold a lie, the wrong kind of "good". That creates cognitive dissonance, unnecessary suffering and isolation. In the past it wasn't as bad, I think.

Chu,

I am not sure if I I know how to make any point in writing in reply to such a deeply and widely diverse matter such as friendship. What I wanted to say was something positive and constructive that might bring into attention that a lack of friendship has also an internal and very personal cause. It might not be pertinent, but I’ll tell you a story. My daughter has her leg in a cast. It is very difficult for her to move. One night before falling asleep she saw a spider close to the bed. She knew that she cannot do anything about it so she named the spider Lucas, and she talked to him, telling him that she will not do anything bad but he must leave the premisses. Next morning Lucas was gone. She made friends with Lucas.

 

[Gruchaa]

I am the part of the Millennial generation (30) and based on my experience (assuming it is quite subjective) I would say that in Poland Millennials have more true friends than the 40-60 years old people. Maybe the quantity is small, but quality is much better I would say. 40-60's relations are less deeper I would say.
However this is based on my own experience and observations of my neighborhood.
Maybe these results of 22% Of Millennials Say They Have No Friends would be higher for another generations? Maybe MIllenials are just more willing to talk about that? Don't know.

I would say that younger generations (born from end of 90's and beginning of 00's) will have more problems with social life (i.e. making friends) due to their exposure to social media from the very beginning of their life. However I could be wrong here also.

 

[Scottie]

I find myself wondering just what is this alien place, and why did we even bother coming here? As Caesar said, humanity is lost. Maybe we deserve it. Or maybe we just need to see first hand how bad things can get when you have complete discombobulation and disconnection from the creative principle, just to know what not to do and how not to live.

The way I figure it, there are two main options:

1. We are gluttons for punishment.

2. The C's are not crazy, and there really IS a purpose to our being here, witnessing all of this, and trying to "hold the frequency" (whatever that means) in spite of all the doom and gloom.

I'm going with Door #2. If it turns out it's actually Door #1, well, I haven't really lost anything, and I will hopefully gain maybe a teeny-tiny ability to deal with utter insanity without exploding.

 

[genero81]

Life is utterly, indescribably amazing. The more I learn, the more I can expand my awareness, the more completely Godsmacked I am. What we have here is a failure to communicate. Too much noise to find a clear channel for many. That's because things are in a chaotic state. I realized something last night in the Sci Fi genre that where reason was once valued over emotion like with Spock, now emotion is being pushed as superior to reason. Of course emotion is necessary for growth but exalting it to such an overblown status is just exacerbating the chaos. Or so it seems to me. But yeah, things are super wacked out. At a time when technology has made it super easy to stay in touch with others, people are more lonely than ever. Hold on to your seats. It's going to be a bumpy ride!

 

[SlipNet]

This news doesn't really surprise me, life has become more atomized for years now. I've lost friends with the regularity of dead skin over the years, mainly because of my interest in "conspiracy" material, and being too vocal about it. I've learned the hard way about having a strategic enclosure, I came to Gurdjieff a little too late to limit the damage.

One thing I must note about myself is that I am less interested in people these days, other than folks that I'm already close to. Not really sure this is a good thing, but I notice this in me nevertheless.

I think the info heavy world we live in has just spun a lot of people out and they have become techno junkies, continually dissociating. Sometimes I worry about where we're headed, but I'm sure there'll be big shocks for the populace eventually, perhaps driving folk to re-evaluate things.

 

[Seamus]

I'm 37 (born 1982) so I think I'm a little old to be counted as a millennial, or maybe I'm near the cutoff? Anyway, my experience FWIW...

I saw this article on Zerohedge yesterday and I was thinking about it last night because I've been feeling a bit lonely lately. In my case I don't have a lot of IRL friends right now and I think its mostly because I've moved around so much in the past 5-6 years and I wonder if that might be part of the picture for others my age as I know a lot of my peers make frequent big moves. My grandfather lived almost his whole life in one city and most of his friends and family did the same thing. My parents made one big move when they were 37, then settled down. I've made 3 big moves (Vermont to Boston area ~2013, Boston area to CA Bay Area ~2015, then Bay area to Rhode Island ~2017) in the past 5-6 years for school and work and it takes time to make new friends. I also found it much easier to make friends when I was in school because of the built in social interactions.

I'm trying to approach making friends outside of school as a skill to re/learn, but for some its easier to just plug into phones and engage in online "interactions", OSIT.

 

[Cleo]

I was thinking about this topic the other week, reflecting on my situation but also wondering how it might be for others and found this Joe Rogan interview interesting:

Edit to add apparently I fall within the millennial age group but at the cutoff as I'm in my late 30's.