NONE OF US ARE IMMUNE TO TEENAGE LONELINESS, BUT IT DOES GET BETTER
I was a very shy teenager. Remember back in those dark days when there was no app to order your Chinese food and you had to call and speak to a human on the phone? Sheer terror. Sometimes they wouldn’t hear you because the kitchen was busy and you’d have to repeat yourself… THE HORROR. Definitely a situation to be avoided.
Thankfully, through forcing myself to speak in sixth form assemblies and subsequently teaching for a while – you try wrangling 30 15-year-olds to learn about ionic lattices – I’ve somewhat got over my shyness. It’s still there, mind you, but in practicing the art of ‘fake it til you make it’… I’ve kind of made it, at least a bit.
Considering my own experience of being young and awkward, when people talk about teenagers being socially anxious, it doesn’t really shock me. If you were one of those teenagers who somehow turned gracefully into a swan at the age of 14 then bravo to you, friend – but I’m reasonably sure you’re in the fortunate minority. Shy teens? Not a headline – until now. New research has shown that social media is compounding the issue, and causing a real, life-altering problem for our nation’s youth.