In the past few years, across Canada, a growing number of students have reported feelings of loneliness and isolation. In 2023 alone, nearly 18.6% Canadian students reported always feeling lonely, while an additional 38.5% reported sometimes feeling lonely, both figures surpassing the average among all Canadians by over 5%. Behind each of these statistics are thousands of students across Canada, some of whom may be fellow students in our school, and when moving to connect with those students, it’s important to examine the primary causes of loneliness that they could be feeling.
- Lack of Connections / Friendships
School can be, and often is, a stressful environment for students. One essential aspect of helping students navigate their environment are friendships. In a larger sense, friendships can allow students to keep themselves grounded to their lives outside of school, and the lack of strong friendships is among the most obvious reasons for feelings of loneliness. Among Canadian students, only 22.9% of boys and 35.2% of girls reported strong levels of social support from friends, representing a significant majority of Canadian students who do not receive adequate support from their friends to deal with the problems they may face. - Overbearing Schoolwork
As students grow older, the amount of work expected upon them increases. But simultaneously, the amount of time to allocate throughout the day remains the same. Meaning that, for students, as their workload increases, they have to shave off time from their extracurriculars, their hobbies, their friendships, and even their sleep. As a direct result of having to decrease their social activities, feelings of loneliness and isolation can easily ferment. - Lack of Socialization Outside Of School
For many students, school is one of the only opportunities for socialization with others on a regular basis. Whether it be a lack of appropriate friendships, or an inability to make time for gatherings, the fact remains many do not often hang out with their friends outside school, and this contributes to feelings of loneliness. In 1994, 48% of boys and 32% of girls reported spending time with their friends outside of school multiple times per week. By 2010, that figure had declined to 32% and 25% respectively. - Obsessive Social Media Usage
Social media usage, and its meteoric rise in the past two decades, is one of the biggest reasons for an increase in feelings of loneliness. Scientific studies from the National Library of Medicine have proven that, when social media usage was limited to just 10 minutes per day, rates of loneliness and depression decreased dramatically. This is due to the fact that social media algorithms often are designed to push content that is tailored to a specific person’s interest, limiting the amount of connections they can make with others online. Additionally, an increase in social media usage is most often paired with a decrease in face-to-face interactions, which again contributes to feelings of loneliness. - Loss of Friendships
One of the most isolating experiences a student can have is when they lose a friend, especially one they were close to. A report from 2015 indicates that just 1% of friendships formed during Grade seven last until Grade 12, and all of those friendships have a high likelihood of dissolving within the first year. Losing a friendship, particularly one that’s lasted multiple years, can be incredibly tough on both students involved, and easily contributes to feelings of loneliness by literally decreasing the amount of social interactions a person can have.
Sources:
- Statistics Canada – Loneliness by selected sociodemographic characteristics
- Social media use, connections, and relationships in Canadian adolescents
- Chapter 5: The Health of Canada’s Young People: a mental health focus – Peers – Canada.ca
- Associations between social media use and loneliness in a cross-national population: do motives for social media use matter? – PMC
- Study shows most teenage friendships doomed to fail: but whose fault is that?