Internet affecting youth social skills

A lack of support for Wairarapa youth is leading to loneliness, depression and anxiety, a social worker says.

A local counselling services says the growth in social media and the internet is undermining young people's social skills and ability to make friends.

The Loneliness in New Zealand report, published by Statistics New Zealand, found the chances of feeling lonely decreased as people got older.

Social isolation was equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes or drinking six units of alcohol a day, according to the research.

The report showed 18 per cent of people aged under 30 had felt lonely at least some of the time in the previous four weeks.

Among those aged 30 to 64 years, 16 per cent had felt lonely. Among people aged 65 and over, the figure was just 11 per cent.

Wairarapa Community Counselling Centre acting manager Pam Howells said while youth clients did not come to the centre for loneliness issues specifically, it was linked to other issues, including depression, relationship break-ups and anxiety.

"I suspect it's something that our team of counsellors have talked about in the past - that youth might be lacking the social skills to make friends because so much of their connections are done via the internet.

"We wondered whether that might result in a lessening of youth social skills - that's possibly a contributing factor."

It was difficult for today's youth to meet, and there was a lack of support networks for those who were feeling lost, Ms Howells said.

"There's not that many venues for older youth that have left school where they can meet up with friends, [and] make new friends unless they're into sporting activities or a church."

According to the report, the likelihood of young Asian people feeling lonely was twice that of young non-Asian respondents.

Adults who had migrated to New Zealand in the last four years were also more likely to suffer loneliness.

Victoria University migration specialist Professor Colleen Ward said when people moved to a new country they rarely had support networks.

Language skills were also a major factor, as a lack of English often prevented new migrants from approaching and trying to establish new relationships, Prof Ward said.

Adolescent psychology specialist, Associate Professor Dr Paul Jose said adolescents reported high levels of loneliness due to the intense motivation to spend time with others.

"There's a very strong motive to have friends and to spend time with friends - if somebody experiences difficulty with that, the loneliness can be quite intense."

While social media played a role in loneliness with youth, it was not to blame, Dr Jose said.

"It's a magnifying glass - if you're lonely, engaging in social media might actually make your loneliness worse.

However, "if you're a friendly, gregarious, outgoing kind of person who can make friends easily - you'll probably do that even more so with Facebook."

Data was collected through the New Zealand General Social Survey between April 2010 and March 2011, involving 8500 people aged 15 and over.

The report stressed that while interrelated, social isolation and loneliness were two different concepts.

Loneliness and poor mental health were strongly related across all ages.

APNZ