Gen Z the Loneliest Generation

news.yahoo.com...

“So 62% of Generation Z’s, those people under 24 years of age, say that they feel lonely often, that’s once a week. And half of those people say that they feel lonely even when they’re surrounded by other people.”

I think that statistic is wrong, I actually think the number is higher. I also don't think they are just lonely surrounded by people. I think they are lonely surrounded by people with phones in their faces. Yes that is lonely. These kids have 4,384 friend on social media yet they are lonely.

I have young adult kids. They have their friends over. It is apparent these friends do not have dinner with family often.
I made a dinner and have a rule, no electronics, no exception. These kids are starving for old fashioned conversation & attention. Moms and Dads working all hours. Nobody seems to eat at a table anymore.

The last time we had a get together dinner, this young lady did not want to get up. So I sat there, I talked with her for five hours. I am not exaggerating in the least. Five hours. She said how much she loved just sitting at the table and chatting. My heart broke. These kids aren't getting the human connection anymore.

There have been a few other similar incidents that just make me shake my head. There is a whole generation of kids not getting love, not getting attention. We have seen some of this manifest in violence. I guarantee you will see it manifest in other ways as they grow older, and it won't be pretty.


I find it humorous based on the charts, the older you get the less lonely you are. Maybe that is because at that point you just want people to leave you alone!

I honestly believe these gadgets facilitate subconscious, isolationist behavior.

Headphones and cellphones are the perfect way to 'politely' ignore people and situations.

Asked a fellow BART train commuter, with headphones and head down, if a pen beneath their seat was theirs. The look I initially received was jarring. It was expressional fear mixed with resentment, with a sprinkle of "whatever".

Pandoras box is wide open. I TRULY feel terrible that this is the future for our young adults and their children to be.....(if they even think that idea is sound. Family life and raising children is so 1990's I'm told quite often🙄🙄)

They should celebrate their loneliness. It's a passing phase. We all probably went through something like it when we were young.

Real loneliness is when you are old and can't get out. It's when your peer group are dying off and your social circle constricts. Young people don't know what loneliness really is.

With all due sympathy for Generation Z:

“Seek, and Ye shall find”

If “the kids” are lonely, for whatever reason, do they not have to but ask, and thus find a way out of their dilemma?

If it is face to face conversation time, “IRL” so to speak, is it not up to them to put down the device(s) and (OK Boomer!) “BE” there in real life to forge the type of relationship they long for?

Every journey of a thousand miles is said to begin with a first step...Even when that first step is to turn off the phone.

Generation Z must stand for Generation Zombie.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Several things I have noticed about many of these young people,
1. They lack the ability to read social clues.
2. They have an aversion to touch.
3. They think they have to be right about everything and an "I don't know" response means, I have no further interest in what you are saying.

I find repeatedly that many of them have little or no experience with being socially active outside of their social media environment.

The most frightening of all of this is that they actually believe that someone they have never seen face to face, is a close friend and can be trusted.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

I find repeatedly that many of them have little or no experience with being socially active outside of their social media environment.

Or the few that actually do go out, they are sitting there with their phones.
I've been out to lunch with friend and see these young people sitting together, not talking, just texting/browsing.

In addition to being bad socially, I think it is bad for digestion too.

Social media is bad for your health. Especially if you are a pre-teen to young adult girl/woman. The good news is there is a sizable cohort of Z's who either don't use or never used social media. Social media biz consultants have been fretting over this for a few years now and it's gotten "worse" for Facebook and Twitter.

I only know a sample size of two that I can speak on with some confidence. My oldest is 21 and she has largely drifted from social media and phones toward a local arts scene. Still, she is probably more "lonely" than my son. He, on the other hand, has never had a social media account and spends his weekends playing airsoft with a large group of friends. None of them are terribly interested in social media or playing with their phones. I've watched them sit and play D&D for hours (before they discovered airsoft anyway) and barely look at theirs. I suspect its no accident that these kids are all on a success fast-track that barely includes university, let alone traditional media.

It's a small sample, obviously, but still valid as exemplars of the antithesis to this story.

originally posted by: NightSkyeB4Dawn

The most frightening of all of this is that they actually believe that someone they have never seen face to face, is a close friend and can be trusted.

I am in awe of them!!!!!
1,000 plus 'friends' I find it hard to remember any more than 50 or so!!!

originally posted by: JAGStorm


Or the few that actually do go out, they are sitting there with their phones.
I've been out to lunch with friend and see these young people sitting together, not talking, just texting/browsing.

In addition to being bad socially, I think it is bad for digestion too.

Sadder still ....... they probably are texting each other rather than speaking.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Poor things. They never stood a chance. Look how bad Millennials are, Z will be worse. I was really hoping Gen Z would learn from the last generation's mistakes and see how ignorant and stupid they sounded and looked and do all they could not to sound and look just as bad. Lots of Millennials refuse to claim their generation because they're embarrassed by them.

originally posted by: paraphi
They should celebrate their loneliness. It's a passing phase. We all probably went through something like it when we were young.

Real loneliness is when you are old and can't get out. It's when your peer group are dying off and your social circle constricts. Young people don't know what loneliness really is.

They think they know everything because their parents let them run everything.

The only time I was lonely as a kid was when my best friend next door moved to another state for a year. My parents are getting old, my next to youngest kid is about to be in High School and oldest graduates this year. My loneliness is about to hit me starting in about 5 years so I enjoy every second of every day.

originally posted by: NightSkyeB4Dawn
a reply to: JAGStorm

Several things I have noticed about many of these young people,
1. They lack the ability to read social clues.
2. They have an aversion to touch.
3. They think they have to be right about everything and an "I don't know" response means, I have no further interest in what you are saying.

I find repeatedly that many of them have little or no experience with being socially active outside of their social media environment.

The most frightening of all of this is that they actually believe that someone they have never seen face to face, is a close friend and can be trusted.

NAILED IT!

Perfect post.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Maybe, we are witnessing the evolution of togetherness into individuality. Or maybe, it is another separation of the masses technique that has been put into play for ultimate and total control of the human population. Either way, it is an interesting time to be alive.

originally posted by: LSU2018
a reply to: JAGStorm

Poor things. They never stood a chance. Look how bad Millennials are, Z will be worse. I was really hoping Gen Z would learn from the last generation's mistakes and see how ignorant and stupid they sounded and looked and do all they could not to sound and look just as bad. Lots of Millennials refuse to claim their generation because they're embarrassed by them.

Z will be worse, But I think Gen Alpha (cool name huh) will be better. I really do.
I think by then we will have had a recession (a very bad one). Sometimes things that are perceived as bad can have good effects. We will have seen the full effects of the previous phone to face generation.

We are going to see a longing for "olden" times, or at least what they perceive as olden. We are seeing some of that already. Farmhouse decor is very hot, even though many of us know that's not what farmhouses look like. It is the sentiment these people are going for.

a reply to: JAGStorm

These kids are starving for old fashioned conversation & attention. Moms and Dads working all hours. Nobody seems to eat at a table anymore.

I think most aren't as lonely as you think they are. Many of these younger adults get attention on social media and most don't eat at a table because of their busy schedule. Why interact with adults when their friends are on social media? Nearly every young person I meet, who's part of the Generation Z crowd, are always looking down at their phones.

My kids both are going to college and are working jobs too. My daughter graduates next year and is working at a hospital 40 hrs. a week for clinic, then has to go to school on certain weeks for testing. She's going to be a medical sonographer and comes home tired and stressed on most nights. She still manages to sit down for dinner with my wife and me, at least 3 times a week, but there's very little conversation. When she's not home, or at work, she's hanging out with her boyfriend, or meeting up with her girlfriends. When she's not studying in her room, she's always on her iphone.

My son works 2 part-time jobs and has a full course load, as he studies to become a graphic artist. We hardly ever see him. He starts his day at 8 am and he is either at college in the art lab, or at work, often coming home at 1 am. He is permanently attached to his iphone and brings it everywhere, even if he's grilling a grilled cheese sandwich, lol. Very rarely do we get to enjoy his company at dinnertime.

At family functions, my nephew and niece, who are 20 and 17 respectively, are always on their phones during dinner and even afterwards. They are totally addicted to those damn things!

My kids and my niece are very social and hang out with many of their friends. My nephew is somewhat of an introvert and tech geek. At family functions they all engage in conversation, but IMO, they certainly aren't starving for attention.

I think Gen X is loneliest. No one ever bothered to send hoards of researchers out to study us in the wild. We're the invisible generation.

a reply to: ketsuko

Gen X is a bit stranger than that. We sat and observed. We picked up knowledge and mannerisms reaching back to the 1920’s and will adopt ongoing trends until we start dying out in the 2050’s and 2060’s. So most of us will strapped down in geriatric chairs because they cannot trust us on our own. We will be willing to play anything from cards to board games to video games. With slang stretching 140 years of common use, the caretakers will find our communications somewhat coded and confusing.

You almost feel sorry for them, but as Gen X we don’t really feel sympathy.

a reply to: highvein

Yes it is. I remember reading "The Naked Sun", when I was a teen. I was fascinated with the concept. I never realized that I would be living the age of its beginning.

When I was young, the dinner meal was a nightly ritual. My Dad made a big production out of us all sitting down to eat together and giving an accounting of our day. There was eight of us children at the time. We all had to tell our story, including the wee ones that could bare say "'and then...". "Nothing" was never an accepted answer to, "What did you do today"? You had better make up something, and you had better make sure it matched whatever one of the neighbors had already seen you do, and had already told your parents.

Children today don't know what personal social relationships look like.

Parents are out of the house working long hours or multiple jobs, so a social home life is nonexistent. Dating in the pass had its own set of social rules, along with community and family monitors and preceptors. Today nosy neighbors are attacked and told to mind their business.

Children today don't know what a healthy dating or intimate personal relationship looks like, so they rely on social media friends and the internet to tell then what to do and what to expect.

I have seen way too many times the unfortunate and ugly outcomes of how that plays out. The one thing I stress heavily to parents, is the importance of teaching their children what a healthy intimate partner relationship should look and feel like. At least have the conversation.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

It's as if we write our future, so to speak, or maybe an aspect of it.

Civilizations have been around for at least 5000 years that we know. Each one has seemed to have fallen to war of some kind, whether it is a war of idealism or a war of weapons, both can and have brought down civilizations.

Is it only through separation from what we consider personal relationships that humans can truly find peace?

I don't know, but somehow I also know. Yes and no. Change also has it's enemies.