Gen Z is the loneliest generation to ever attend college.
According to a 2023 Cigna report, Gen Z is “much more lonely” than older generations, with 79% of young people feeling lonely in Cigna’s latest Loneliness Index.
For many of us, this is not surprising at all.
One explanation is that we are the generation with the most media at our fingertips.according to dcdx, a Gen Z advocacy group, spends an average of 7 hours and 7 minutes of screen time per day. We spend more than a third of our waking hours on our phones. We are at a stage where we find ourselves sinking inward. As we become more occupied and spend more time in front of our phones and laptops, it's common to feel like we're sinking in.
When we become submerged in other worlds, we end up having a hard time recognizing our own. Traditional thinking holds that college is a time to meet people and step out of your comfort zone. In fact, overuse of technology can lead to a lifestyle that is contrary to the university's image.
Our generation lives between two worlds. Please concentrate on walking around campus. In the corners of the room you will see specks of treated light and traces of quiet everyday life. The loneliest students simply disappear from view. Many students live in another world. They deviate from our social reality. There is a missing part of the university. It all adds up to a big picture with big questions. Who are the missing students?
These students are ourselves and others. While Elon has an active social life, the students are more or less engaged in a battle between technology and reality. Some people fall victim to their limitless imagination. Some people win and some people lose.
“I can't fit into real life”
Elon students have different philosophies and strategies for dealing with technology use.
Freshman Grace Luebbe spends her time in the Elon esports room, a space dedicated to gaming. She believed there was an “absolute connection” between loneliness and media use.
“When social interactions are distorted, the brain makes us feel lonely and that this is unnatural,” says Lubbe.
Lübbe said loneliness stems from the unhealthy use of distorted, anonymous perspectives caused by technology. Worse, she said, are groups of lonely people who are “ending up online.”
An increasing proportion of people are online on a device, a state of constant Internet use. According to Pew Research Center's His 2023 Since 2015, the percentage of 18-29 year olds who are always online has increased from 39% to 62%.
“I think the more time you spend surrounded by digital people, the more you get used to it,” Lubbe says. “That's how your brain gets rewired to think.”
Lubbe said that terminally going online creates a whole group of people who are “unable to participate in real life.”
The loneliest moment in Lubbe's life has been the coronavirus pandemic. She said her pandemic isolation has ruined her social life.
“There was just one group of friends that played the game together and that was it,” Luebbe said.
Since then, Luebbe has made many friends in the game room and more or less found a place of his own.
She said the best way to balance your media use is to read your emotions and know what's healthy for your mind.
“Emotions are information,” Lubbe says. “They're your body's way of telling you that what you're doing is unhealthy.”
At the time of the interview, Lubbe's screen time was six hours per day.
Using social media can sometimes feel like an obligation during college life. According to the Pew Research Center, 84% of adults ages 18-29 use social media. While it may serve as a means of connection, it often serves no purpose.
Sophomore Chloe Schuster said being in a sorority (Zeta Tau Alpha) makes her feel obligated to post often, especially during and after sorority recruitment.
“Sometimes the older girls tell us to post other things,” Schuster said. “There can definitely be some pressure at this time of year.”
Schuster said excessive technology use leads to less direct connection and loneliness. She believes this to be true. Because, she says, “the more time you spend alone, the more you use technology.”
Mr. Schuster had about five hours of screen time a day.
The impact of loneliness and media use is greater than the individual. From this perspective, Gen Z is in new territory when it comes to history, loneliness, and destiny.
Ilyssa Salomon is a professor of psychology who has focused some of her research on the effects of media use. She Salomon faced loneliness with scientific uncertainty about the future.
“We're still thinking about it. It's happening right now,” Salomon said. “Now it's not just kids using mobile phones, parents are using them too.”
Salomon said there is research showing there is a correlation between loneliness and time spent online.
“Media use can be very passive, but in theory it's never passive in practice,” Salomon says.
“50% human, 50% reality”
Junior Evan Parnell has significantly reduced his use of technology. An avid skater, Parnell often stands on his board in the sunlight at Medallion Plaza. By deleting Instagram from his phone, he cut his daily screen time from 4-6 hours to 1 hour and 30 minutes. He said that if he needs to check social media, he does so on his laptop.
“Just get outside for a little while. It's been proven that getting outside is really good for mental health,” Parnell said.
It's difficult to give advice on a subject that depends on individual motivation, he said.
“I think it's hard for them to realize that because they're still dependent on it,” Parnell said. “We have to recognize that it’s a problem.”
Parnell said he considers watching television and using technology a “waste of time.” Instead, he values time spent outdoors and pursuing hobbies such as photography. He said his hobby has helped him find community.
According to data from A/B consumer research; Screen time was a consistent cause of loneliness. According to the report, we are made up of “50% humans and 50% technology.”
For sophomore Karina Kaplan, the phone represents a balance between expectations and reality.
And she believes in finding a balance between the two.
“People keep saying, 'College is about me,'” Kaplan said. “So social situations are opportunities, not guarantees.”
Kaplan said she plans to stay in bed and scroll before restricting cell phone use. She now decides not to look at her phone first thing in the morning and instead does her morning chores first. However, even with this change, her screen time was 9 hours and 4 minutes.
put an end to a momentary life
Last year, the US Surgeon General said loneliness was bad for health. smoke 15 cigarettes a day. Once you get to the bottom of the well, you'll read facts like this and realize there's a huge amount of information available. This can be both encouraging and worrying. Our generation has the knowledge of how to live life moment by moment, but we don't really practice it. we are transfixed.
2014 survey The article about college students and internet addiction seems like a prophecy. The study found an “alarming vicious cycle” between loneliness and internet addiction among college-age adults. Such facts are now common knowledge. We know this and have intuited it for a long time.
Possibilities always exist. Extremely high rates of loneliness are caused by the disconnection of the world and the moment. Through our conversations, I learned that the line between fantasy and reality is a line to walk.
After my conversation with Parnell, I deleted Instagram from my phone. I'll definitely look at some reels on the computer, but it's a step in the right direction. As I was walking to the Moseley Center the other day, I looked up at the night sky and admired it for a moment. It felt new.
When you immerse yourself in someone else's world, your own world becomes paralyzed. Many people still feel the urge to call loneliness an epidemic. Somehow we haven't left that mindset. That perspective hurts us. If you think of loneliness as something to be caught, or something that will spread and get worse, it will get completely out of control.
Loneliness in our generation is a complex problem with no easy solutions. But learning to balance your media intake and move back and forth between both words will make your world, and therefore your life, more real and vibrant. Being aware of your fantasies and reality is always a step.
One of the best quotes I heard was in a place I didn't expect. Lubbe said this in the esports room. “When you look at the most basic mobile phone, you're not hearing a voice, you're hearing a reproduction of that voice.” Not a real person. It cannot convey a real human voice. That will never happen. ”
You can feel the warmth because you are close to them. You can't turn more than a few miles to your dorm.
Lubbe later said, “The human brain is stronger than a computer.”
Let's hope so. Let's hope we don't become victims of our imagination.