MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS: How social media is leading to loneliness for people in their 20s and 30s

Description

Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Manchester Business School, said loneliness was a common trend among the younger population in Greater Manchester, partly because of its huge university population.

“People don’t know their neighbours who live three doors down and a lot more people live on their own,” he said.

“As a result more and more people are lonely and a lot of people under 18 in Manchester are lonely because they have moved away from their family or parents for the first time.”

But he said the problem can persist in among people in their 30s – just for different reasons.

“There’s a lot of mobility in the type of jobs we work in now which means we move around a lot more to areas where we don’t anyone,” he said.

“The 30s and 40s are also a high risk group in terms of separation, divorce and the breakdown of relationships.

“If you are working a lot of the time you are going to spending a lot less time socialising and meeting people.”