Student Loneliness – You’re Not Alone
Having worked with them for a number of years, both here and in Edinburgh, student loneliness is topic I’m well versed in.
When you become a student, it often feels like starting again. It can be a blank canvas for a student, to shape who they are. But it can also prove to be a really challenging period, especially if you have moved away from home. It’s easy to view the life of a student as being an easy and fun one, but that isn’t always the case in reality.
This article on the BBC caught my eye, talking about how difficult it can be to fit into student life when you first start. How tricky it can be to find your group of people, particularly if you don’t follow the normal trends of early student life, such as drinking. And if you don’t manage to fit in quickly, how that can have a lasting effect on all aspects of a student’s life.
The Effects of Student Loneliness
The impact of student loneliness can vary, but includes losing confidence and questioning yourself. Both of which can have a serious negative impact on your mental health and wellbeing. As one young man quotes in the article:
“I started to lose my confidence. I felt like people didn’t want to be friends with me, or they didn’t like me.”
One bit that really stood out for me was how social media made it worse, not better. Instead of being able to use social media to find a community, those quoted talked about how it actually amplified the loneliness by showing what they were missing out on. Like with so many aspects of social media, it does have its positive uses, but in this case, it caused more harm than good.
Read the article on student loneliness at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4jw1xxz7lo
(Source – BBC News)
