Teenagers lonelier at school than those 20 yrs ago, here's the reason

In today’s time teenagers are lonelier at school than those 20 years back because smartphones stop them from talking to friends, a study says.

Researchers discovered that section of 15 and 16 year olds in the United Kingdom are feeling alienated among peers has become three times as much since 2000 to 33 per cent.

According to the researchers rise coexist with widespread use of smartphones and social media by this age group.

Students are speaking less and feeling exculded when they view online images of friends having fun without them.

As maintained in a paper found in 2000, 10 per cent of 15 and 16-year-olds in the UK had high levels of school loneliness. In 2003, levels remained unchanged at 9 per cent.

However, by the year 2012, the numbers had gone up to 15 per cent, soaring to 25 per cent in 2015 and 33 per cent in 2018.

Approximately 60,000 teens were added in the UK statistics. They were asked to rate how much they agreed or disagreed with statements including 'I feel like an outsider, or left out of things, at school' and 'I feel awkward and out of place in school'.

The team of researches, led by San Diego State University, said school loneliness 'is an established predictor of low well-being and depression among adolescents'.

The authors, who studied children worldwide, stated that social media in particular is having a negative effect as it may heighten feelings of missing out or lead to cyber bullying.

Increases were more among females than males.

The study, put out in the Journal of Adolescence, said there was a strong link between smartphones and loneliness, albeit definite blame cannot be proven.

Furthermore, according to researchers, adolescent wellbeing 'began to decline after 2012, in conjunction with the rise of smartphone access'.

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