Young Australians have been feeling lonelier. The most recent Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey found that 35 percent of Australians indicated they do not believe they have many friends, and among people aged 15-24, loneliness has been on a steady rise.

For many students, university is supposed to mark the beginning of new experiences, one where lifelong friendships are formed. However, for some, classes end, and students file out the door without exchanging a single word to the person sitting next to them.

Matilda Underhill, a Bachelor of Education student at La Trobe University, has faced challenges making friends while at university. She tells upstart that while she has made one friend, she has found it difficult to socialise with others since starting her first year.

“I’ve really struggled as it feels like everybody has their own groups of friends …so I’ve ended up feeling quite out of place,” she says.

Hassan Rizvi, a third year Podiatry student at La Trobe University, tells upstart that it has been hard to create real connections with people while studying.

“Even after trying to create opportunities for classroom conversations to continue outside the classroom, I have had no success,” he says.

The rise in social disconnection on campuses has been caused by multiple factors such as the boom in online learning during the pandemic. A report from the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES) found that enrolment in off-campus study has increased to 22.4 percent since 2021.  Experts also say that the pandemic caused children to miss out on developing real social skills, which has impacted their ability to connect with others later.

Another factor is social media. A Melbourne University study found it can make people feel very alone. Another US study surveyed 386 students, finding that the time spent on social media was linked with higher levels of fear of missing out, which has a direct association with poorer physical, emotional and mental health.

Underhill says social media has contributed to her feelings of disconnection.

“I always see videos of uni girls going together and going to classes together and I know it’s only week three but so far I haven’t really found that for myself,” she says.

While social media hasn’t changed the way Rizvi views friendships, he says that it does impact feelings of loneliness.

“Social media definitely doesn’t help when I am constantly seeing friendship groups online and then the contrast personally, which exacerbate feelings of isolation,” he says.

Dr Inga Lass, a senior research fellow in the HILDA research team tells upstart that there are two ways social media has contributed to the decline of friendships.

“One is that people spend more time on social media, and don’t go out and have as much face-to-face contact to their friends,” she says. “The other thing is that people start to compare themselves with the people they see on social media. They all seem to be living exciting lives and posting events with their friends and it can increase the feelings of loneliness and isolation that people have.”

This can also have a major impact on mental health. HILDA data shows that around 40 percent of respondents felt lonely and another 37 percent have poor mental health. It also found that 42 percent of young Australians are experiencing distress, partly as a result of loneliness and harmful online interactions.

This is a vicious cycle that impacts many people, Dr Lass says.

“People who don’t have many friends, that can attenuate their mental health,” she says. “But on the other hand, people who already have poor mental health, they find it also a lot harder to go out into the world and make new connections and approach people, because it takes effort.”

It doesn’t help that social connections appear to be weakening, with the proportion of people meeting face-to-face with friends dropping from 32 percent to 20 percent since 2001.

“What we have seen for young people generally, is that the amount of socialising has declined, so the frequency with which they meet friends and relatives that don’t live with them has declined a lot,” Dr Lass says. “So that used to be that many people used to meet them daily or several times a week, and this has declined quite considerably.”

These challenges have an overall impact on the student experience at university, and students like Underhill say that the social aspect of tertiary education is not what she expected.

“I thought I’d be spending weekends doing things with new friends, but I’ve found myself heading back to my hometown or going into the library to study because I’m so socially estranged from everyone at the moment,” she says.

Rizvi admits he thought that university would be similar to how American movies portray university life.

“I feel like I had similar expectations to that where there will be so many people wanting to be friends and wanting to meet new people, big events, a lot of societies, clubs, easily accessible events and sports,” he says.

A Youth Insight survey found that two out of three students would like to connect more with others while at university, and also wanted more peer support and opportunities to meet and interact.

Some universities have already started to put peer support programs in place, Dr Lass says.

“Melbourne Uni actually has a dedicated website called Making Friends, where they are trying to give some guidance, and I think, also point to some wellbeing workshops and other offers that the university has.”

Other universities are also providing these kinds of information sites, offering students with help on how to build social connections, like Deakin University, which has a dedicated page on social connections and wellbeing for students. La Trobe University also runs group programs, offering hands-on experiences that aim to help students connect with others. Some have also adopted peer mentoring programs, like Melbourne Uni, which offers experienced students with the opportunity to mentor first years.

Dr Lass says that there is opportunities for more resources to be created to help further address the issue in the future.

“There’s a lot more awareness now with respect to mental health issues and the loneliness epidemic,” Lass says. “And even the reduction in friendship has a word now and that’s the ‘friendship recession’.”

Now, this growing understanding of the problem needs to convert to change, she says.

“I hope that this might actually lead to some ways of how this can be addressed in society.”

Article: Isabella Novella is a second-year Bachelor of Media and Communications (Journalism) student at Latrobe University. You can follow her on X at @Isa_Novella07

Photo: University Library Study Area in Vancouver by Ekam Juneja is available HERE and used under a Creative Commons Licence. This image has not been modified.