A new poll from YouGov has reaffirmed findings from other studies that suggest millennials are the loneliest generation.
1,254 US adults were asked a number of questions about how they meet new people and how many friends they consider themselves to have.
30% of millennials stated that they “often” or “always” felt lonely, the highest percentage out of all the respondents. The national average was worked out as being just 21%.
Further, 27% of millennials saw themselves as having no close friends, while 22% don’t think they have any friends at all.
The survey didn’t directly look into why this trend is affecting millennials more than other generations, but it did speculate that an overuse of the internet, specifically social media, could be largely to blame.
Melissa Hunt, a psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania who conducted similar research at the end of 2018, explained: “Here’s the bottom line: Using less social media than you normally would lead to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness.”
The majority of adults who admitted that they struggle to make friends said that their shyness was a key factor holding them back. However, 27% believe that they don’t need friends, while a fifth stated that friendships are “too much work”.
Bumble BFF marked International Friendship Day by launching a new awareness campaign to try and tackle the issue of loneliness. #AskingForAFriend starred actress and activist Jameela Jamil as the face of the movement and encouraged young people to use the platform’s friendship mode to make new connections.
Data from the social app showed that 84% of people in the UK believe it’s difficult to make new friends.
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