2024-10-10 04:00:00
A specialist in “becoming an adult” and the study of emotions, Cécile van de Velde, sociologist from the University of Montreal, investigates loneliness through the ages. She deciphers the intimate and collective effects of this feeling among young people.
How can we explain why young people feel so alone these days?
It is a phenomenon that was there well before the pandemic, which partly highlighted it: the rise in loneliness among young people is a strong and structural trend over the last two decades, whether in Europe, in North America, Japan or South Korea for example. It is multifactorial and difficult to understand. First of all, young people find themselves the most concerned by the major factors which create loneliness in the entire population: unemployment and job insecurity firstly, and the geographical mobility imposed by the beginnings career afterwards.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers A “loneliness epidemic” is spreading among young people
Add to your selections
Generational factors also come into play. Younger generations today face a form of academic pressure that was less present in the past, a social pressure to succeed and to choose one’s life very early in a world that is nevertheless closing its doors. The imposed face on oneself and the vertigo created tend to lead to a form of existential solitude. This also arises from a gap between norms which have not changed concerning this age of life – where romantic and friendly links must be created very quickly – and reality, where the possibilities of contact have increased. reduced.
How can loneliness, in this young population, be similar to what you call a “chasm”?
Solitudes are often fleeting, transitory, but there are also chronic solitudes which in fact resemble abyss. I have seen young people in vulnerable situations, already with very little support and without a family or other safety net, who have fallen into forms of solitude which end up absorbing their entire being. What I hear more and more is a political loneliness: the feeling of being abandoned by society, that there is too much adversity. The resulting feeling of being “canceled”, of not existing, in relation to oneself, others or society, is very present in some young people: it is also reflected in others symptoms, such as depression.
What effect can this great solitude have on the construction, at this age, of the relationship with the collective?
It has long been associated with an intimate and private affair, but loneliness has important social consequences. Being too isolated can lead to forms of resignation towards politics. It can also create resentment and anger. Studies have looked at the movement of involuntary celibates, the incels, and have shown that loneliness is absolutely central to their misogynistic and violent rhetoric. It can therefore become the trigger for political discourse of hatred or rejection of others. These are the negative effects. But the #metoo movement has shown that when individuals understand that they are “not alone in feeling alone”, this can also be the basis for collective speaking out for emancipation.
You have 19.57% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
1728965766
#rise #loneliness #among #young #people #strong #structural #trend #decades
