As the Australian government seeks to limit access to social media for under 16s, we might be pushing them further into isolation.
Data released as part of the 18th edition of the annual Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) report highlighted that loneliness and psychological distress is skyrocketing for young people aged 15–24. ‘More than 42 per cent of people aged 15–24 were psychologically distressed in 2021, up from 18 per cent a decade earlier,’ according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) News.
Online learning has a range of benefits, including catching up on lectures and classes in your own time and at your own pace, being able to work and learn off-site, and of course there are significant cost savings to educational institutions. But what are the costs?
Talking to a range of young people in schools and universities, I was surprised by one university student noting that while online lectures are convenient, they missed the chance to sit in a lecture as it created the opportunity to meet other people. This was reinforced by other students who only attend uni or TAFE perhaps one day a week because the rest of the work can be done online.
They aren’t having the myriad of social interactions that I remember, those chance opportunities that were everyday occurrences that led to friendships, social interactions, challenges, and opportunities I otherwise would never have had.
According to Christian Heim in an article for The Institute of Family Studies, ‘Good relationships strongly protect mental health. Less engagement with close people adversely impacts brain chemicals and can lead to social phobia, anxiety, depression, and even suicide. To get over loneliness, adolescents turn to social media rather than to friends. This creates a negative, vicious cycle.’ (https://ifstudies.org/blog/australias-social-media-ban-protects-the-mental-health-of-children-a-look-at-the-evidence).
Time and again studies are showing us that we need social interaction, in-person engagement, and places, spaces, and opportunities to interact. We need to look at the issue of loneliness and mental health not just in the narrow band of banning under 16s from social media but also to look at how the internet, and its use throughout society, is impacting people.
I remember staff at university often joking that the university campus would be so much better without the students. Perhaps they should be careful what they wish for; we wouldn’t want them to become too isolated!
Aslan Shand, editor
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