Jess Page: Let’s be friends
The social media generation has a problem socialising and I think it’s time we talk about it.
They rack up likes and followers and clicks but I’ve noticed a lot of young adults despairing about having no friends.
Friends you can truly lean on in an hour of need, or rely on to laugh with you and not at you.
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Friends that make memories worth treasuring longer than a Snapchat.
A 30-year-old paramedic from Melbourne struck a chord on TikTok describing her nerves before approaching a shop assistant she’d developed a rapport with to ask her out for a friendly coffee.
“I wanted to connect with people,” Gracie said.
So she started a video blog on TikTok to detail their first ‘date’.
Maybe that’s the 2024 equivalent of joining a netball team?
Generation Z is blaming the pandemic, working from home, inflation that is making it too expensive to go out.
But the trend started long before 2020.
It can be traced back to the moment people stopped answering the phone, preferring to text instead.
Now memes or emojis substitute that.
And even in the office, more work is done solo behind the computer screen than via face-to-face conversation.
Schools still ensure children learn to socialise but modern sensibilities put a pause on a lot of the extracurricular activities that used to be part of the transition to adulthood.
Friday night drinks are no longer the norm at most workplaces, partly because the rate of drinking has halved in two decades.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare the number of 18 to 24-year-olds indulging in risky alcohol consumption has fallen from 69 per cent the year I turned 18 to 32 per cent last year.
That’s a good thing.
But a bit of Dutch courage did help strike up a conversation, and turned one drink into a night out that was worth remembering in the morning.
It’s harder to justify paying 14 dollars for another mocktail.
A Friday night in is harder to organise, when more young adults are still rooming with their parents.
Perhaps we need to start arranging play dates for young adults? Revive book clubs and sports clubs that are the fabric of life in regional Australia but seem to end when school does in the city.
Research has found adult friendships usually start at work but too often end when the job does.
It’s worth the price of a coffee or mocktail if you can muster up the courage to ask for a platonic date.