Ardent Zooomer’s Lonely Start Stubs Brand

Australia’s youth is in the midst of a loneliness crisis. 

A recent study found one in seven young people have felt “persistently lonely” over a span of at least two years, shortly after a similar report found one in four millennials and zoomers reported isolation as an everyday stressor. Gen Z have apparently abandoned love.

This has wide ranging impacts, including mental illness, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and dementia. It also holds a harsh mirror up to our proud national tradition of mateship.  

Naturally, there is now a search for solutions.

RACGP Specific Interests Chair Dr Kuljit Singh is an advocate for social prescribing. Rather than a script for 3-4 pints with your mates, this is the practice of connecting patients to a range of non-clinical services in the community.

Creative Australia, meanwhile, recently announced a new two-year initiative that aims to strengthen the role of the arts in health and community care. 

Other ideas are less conventional. A much-discussed piece in the New York Times suggests cigarettes offer an analog answer to persistent distance between individuals. According to one Zoomer, “the party cig is so back”. This is probably not on the RACGP’s list of approved social prescriptions. 

A lone dog recently combatted its own loneliness by spending all day riding a bus, enjoying seemingly endless attention. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely you’d get the same response if you tried this as an isolated 30-something. 

Social psychologist Adam Mastroianni argues that we are too pessimistic and anxious about talking to other people, and that new conversational tools can help unlock connection.

But perhaps our favourite (if confronting) solution is a clapback at the “put yourself first” epidemic. Loneliness is not just a problem for the lonely. It’s on all of us to fix it.