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What’s with All of These Lonely Teens?

WHS Lions Pride Original Story:

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Ah, look at all the lonely people! Teens these days are feeling lonelier than any other generation. The INC reports that  that is not the only thing our generation has going for us! They report that “Symptoms of depression and anxiety are way up among [our] generation. So are reports of self-harm.”[1] Go us!

There are many theories to why our generation is so depressed, stressed, and lonely. Some blame social media, while others blame the student workload that modern kids face nowadays. We Have Kids found that some other main reasons for teen loneliness is family issues, fake friends, and insecurities about fashion and loneliness. [2]

I interviewed some students around the school to see how severe the number of lonely teens is, and what makes Gen Z kids have this feeling of loneliness.

I interviewed Sophomore Nick Reiser; I asked him, “Do you often hangout with friends after school?” Nick answered by saying, “Sometimes. I feel that my extra curricular activities cut into my social life.” I then asked him “How do you spend your weekends?” He said, “I spend my weekends practicing sports, working, and playing video games.” That is pretty busy for a weekend besides the video game portion. So we could conclude that the student workload is the issue, but I then interviewed Junior Noah Hickman. I asked Noah “What do you think causes you/someone to feel lonely?” He said “When I look on social media, I see people happy together. Then I feel lonely”

I think there are many issues that cause this widespread loneliness. I think the student workload and expectations cause kids in our generation to sacrifice our social life for good grades and extracurricular activities; this then causes us to see people living their lives on social media, causing teens to feel lonely and stressed.

From personal experiences and while talking to friends about their problems, I think insecurities involving one’s appearance and personality is a big issue for teens, same with the workload. Almost everyone I talk to feels stressed out by their schoolwork 24/7. Teens and schools need to work together to limit the amount of work teens face, and allow teens to experience life as a kid. The student workload forces teens to only connect with students outside of school through texting. Texting can be done from home quickly, and from anywhere. This makes social media the perfect place for teens to socialize while tackling their workload. Except now we are finding that these “face to face”encounters are more healthy than phone to phone.

I think the best thing we can do for teens is encourage parents to take their kids to therapists, and make kids more comfortable about talking about issues bothering them.

Teens need time to be teens, and our lives should not consist of constant work and stress. We need time to go out and socialize, hangout, date, and make lasting memories from our high school career.

  1. https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/gen-z-is-anxious-distrustful-and-often-downright-miserable-new-poll-reveals.html
  2. https://wehavekids.com/parenting/Why-do-we-teenagers-feel-so-lonely
  3. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/teen-screen-time-linked-feeling-loneliner-important-spend/story?id=61880116

Photo from https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poems/teen/depression/

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