The epidemic plaguing our youth
BY LERISSE SMITH
It was a headline that captured the world’s attention.
In January 2018, Great Britain made political history by appointing the world’s first Minister of Loneliness, a move described by then-Prime Minister Theresa May as reflecting the “sad reality of modern life.”
Loneliness has since become a prominent topic in the news, with the World Health Organisation declaring it a pressing global health threat, equating its mortality effects to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
And it’s significantly impacting our young people.
The young people of today are becoming lonelier, according to the latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey that reported Australians aged 15 to 24 are the loneliest age group in the country.
“Young people don’t really talk about loneliness, but you see it and hear it in other ways,” said Rachel Munro, Youth Participation Worker with The Salvation Army’s Youth Services.
“What did you do on the weekend?” and they will reply, “Nothing really. Just watched some movies, went on TikTok.” “Who else have you talked to about this?” Their reply “No one. Who would I tell?”
For many young people, loneliness exists even when they are in a room full of people.
Recent research conducted by the Melbourne Youth Services program, utilising the DeJong Loneliness Scale, revealed that young people often feel they lack someone trustworthy to confide in or talk with about everyday issues, even with friends and acquaintances in their lives.
Post-COVID, the team has noticed a real change in the social skills of the young people coming through its refuge.
“In communal spaces, they are more likely to be glued to their phones than ever before and often talk more to the workers than other young people,” Rachel explained.
“For many, the critical years for social development, where they would have been with peers in classrooms, sporting teams or enjoying other hobbies with friends, was spent online.”
Youth Services Program Manager Claire Edmanson said a change in lifestyle and lockdowns had limited young people’s interactions, resulting in lost opportunities for social connection and increased loneliness and social anxiety. She emphasised the importance of valuing youth in society and ensuring they had a voice and role in addressing their community needs.
A key component of the youth services work was also centred on relationships and social supports for young people, especially when family support was lacking.
While feeling rejected and lonely is an experience all teenagers occasionally have, the Youth Services team based in Upton Road, St Kilda, has found they often don’t have families to fall back on.
When the young people using its service have friendship conflicts, they often don’t have someone to help them workshop a solution or to explain what a healthy relationship looks like for them.
Another presentation of loneliness the workers often see is young people cycling through friendships, never keeping a friend for more than a few weeks or a month at a time.
With the youth services program operating as a PIE (Psychologically Informed Environment), the focus is on building trusting, responsive and supportive relationships within safe environments.
“What we have seen in our program that has improved these experiences is creating a space for young people to socialise in a safe and supported environment,” Rachel explained.
“Through activities such as Laser Tag, group walks and our weekly gardening program, which are led by staff, they can interact with one another without the focus being solely on ‘making friends.’ I believe the main way to prevent loneliness is to help young people create the community they want for themselves.”
Encouraging young people to engage in community life and be in relationship with each other is also a priority for The Salvation Army’s Head of Social Mission, Brad McIver, and his team.
He said The Salvation Army, as a Christian organisation, holds the belief that God created people to be in relationship with each other and to the environment, including young individuals, and it continually reached out to support and ascertain the wellbeing of the community.
This year’s annual Salvation Army Red Shield Research project exploring people’s experiences of hardship found 60 per cent of respondents aged over 18 cited loneliness and social isolation as a great challenge during the past year. The feelings of loneliness often coincided with poorer mental health outcomes. Many respondents also highlighted how their financial situation greatly increased their social isolation and loneliness.
Brad said from his personal and professional experience, young people were suffering great loneliness.
“It probably comes from the fact that I’m a father and a grandfather,” he said.
“I’ve journeyed a little bit of life. It also comes from my professional experience as well. We live in a world that, in many ways, is more connected than ever, and because of technology and social media, you can be anywhere in the world anytime and experience all kinds of things far earlier in life’s journey and development than ever before on this planet. This also affects the maturing of young people.”
Young people also face unprecedented levels of uncertainty in a rapidly changing and often confusing world, Brad remarked. Additionally, the expectations surrounding how they journey through life were somewhat unreasonable.
“When does a child have time to be a child? When does a teenager have time to be a teenager?” he said.
“When I was growing up, I had no mobile phone and very rarely had access to the home phone without asking for permission. The thing I was most concerned about was getting to school to see my mates, whether I was actually engaged in academic activity or not, and what we were doing after school. I’d be roaming around on the bike and visiting mates. There was no noise to the level that young people have these days. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a stable family environment. Many young people are not that fortunate.”
Adding to the stressors of everyday life was also the rapid pace of living and the allure of social media – plus the challenges of switching off.
Brad recently recalled talking with his 22-year-old daughter who commented that she found herself continuously scrolling and scrolling through social media and not even looking at anything in particular.
“I have been guilty of that myself, too,” he reflected.
“So, for our young people, who have technology, they are being constantly bombarded. For me, that is isolating, and that creates loneliness because the relationships that we might have through an online connection, or the expectations of what relationships should look like for young people that are imposed on them by a whole range of media vehicles, is what they’re trying to attain in their reality – and let’s face it, it’s not attainable.
“I think there are societal level impactors on our level of connectedness, and probably the greatest lie is that technology and social media connect us. They really don’t in any meaningful way. There is certainly evidence to prove that the sense of self that we might post on Facebook or Instagram is very rarely a positive impact on our sense of self.”
Providing stability for young people through youth services programs is a key component of tackling the issue for The Salvation Army Social Mission team, plus providing a place of safety and accommodation where it is required. Supporting and encouraging young people to recognise their value for who they are in society is also an integral part of their work.
In his role as Head of Social Mission, Brad is passionate about young people knowing they were made and created in the image of God and did not have to earn favour, value, or appreciation to have value, worth, and a place in this world.
Furthermore, he wants young people to know The Salvation Army can support them in their pursuits and help develop life skills, something the organisation does regularly with young people with great results.
“Immediately, we see an increasing level of confidence,” he commented.
“There’s a young fellow at Upton Road who was isolating in his room but then became involved in their garden, where he got to meet chickens and do other things. Now, there’s a life transformed. A young man who was very isolated for a whole range of reasons and now is connected. He’s got a plan. He’s heading in the right direction, but most importantly, he has self-worth and value.
“The Salvation Army sees each person as having inherent value in the world, and as an organisation, that’s what we champion and being a positive connector with others.”
*Graphic stats supplied by State of the Nation Report Social Connection in Australia 2023
