We have seen the government ban under-16s from social media over concerns for mental health which include isolation, loneliness, anxiety, depression, body image issues, and low self-esteem.
A 2025 study by the University of Sydney stated that, ‘looking at loneliness in young Australians, we found 43 percent of people aged 15 to 25 feel lonely’.
Yet we keep setting up systems that create isolation and loneliness.
One of my children recently commented on the fact that their teaching institution no longer had lectures that they needed to attend. Much to my surprise they commented on the fact that not going to the lectures, not being in a room of possible strangers and potential friends and acquaintances and possibly their future nemesis, they felt they were missing out on those random opportunities for engagement.
Everywhere we look in educational systems from primary, high schools, TAFE and universities we are seeing ‘savings’ being made and ‘flexibility’ given to students by not having to attend campus, by being able to watch a video of a lecture, a lesson, etc. Yet in many ways this is actually driving those students and young people towards more isolation and loneliness.
In my day at TAFE and university, the halls, cafes, bars, and lectures were crowded, bustling, and full of accidental meetings, interactions, shy smiles, and boisterous interactions. For many students these experiences no longer exist because they are no longer required on campus for things like lectures that they now access via pre-recorded footage from wherever, whenever.
According to Gabrielle Skrekovski and Kelly-Ann Allen at www.psychologytoday.com, ‘Casual contact in public places has declined as digital systems replace many everyday exchanges. Casual interactions in public spaces are fading.’
‘Psychologists now warn that this thinning of social connection could feed what the US Surgeon General (2023) has labelled a “loneliness epidemic,” with health risks sometimes comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.’
‘A growing body of research is shedding light on the hidden benefits of casual acquaintances,’ reported www.psychologicalscience.org.
The important thing to recognise is that in our search for efficiency, flexibility and cost reduction, our key institutions are actually removing the opportunities for casual interactions, and accidental engagements in communal spaces.
Whereas during my university and TAFE days my social interactions were based around the people I met on campus, for kids today it is who they are meeting at work, or though other friends at parties because there is so little life on campuses – fewer and fewer opportunities for those incendiary interactions that can change your life.
Imagine an education campus where you were not just in and out for a lab session but actually hung out between lectures, tutorials, and lab sessions? Where it was lively and engaging, where you actually chose to spend time because there were other people around making the spaces interesting. Maybe there is a recipe for a future model of education that draws people into the spaces together and gives them a chance to engage, reducing loneliness and isolation and saving us the health impacts of 15 cigarettes a day when we don’t even smoke? Mind you, the smokers were always more interesting!
Aslan Shand, editor
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