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A survey has revealed that 71% of people in their early 20s are shunning the active nightlife scene and preferring to rather stay home.

It has become such a concern that “reclusive youths” who rarely leave their homes recently prompted South Korea’s government to propose a monthly allowance of R9,000 in an attempt to “reintegrate” the depressed, hermit-like young ones.

While a lot of this can be attributed to everyone just being too broke to go out, sky-rocketing inflation does not fully explain why, according to a December survey by the British advocacy organisation More in Common, under-24s are more inclined than the middle-aged to favour reintroducing COVID-19 restrictions like nightclub closures or the “rule of six” cap on socialising.

Online socialising has also contributed to this trend, and whilst it’s often easier to just browse for a boyfriend or girlfriend on Tinder, Netflix, TikTok and YouTube makes it easier for young people these days to be entertained at home.

Going out to get drunk isn’t as appealing as it once was for a generation that is less likely than previous ones to consume alcohol or drugs. Overall, the new group of young people appear less keen to “sow their wild oats” than the groups before them. Even before lockdowns restricted their movement, risk-taking behaviour which led to incidents of teenage pregnancy and “youth offending” was steadily going down in both the US and the UK. More surprising was the number of young people holding either a part-time job or a driver’s licence – both seen as ‘keys to freedom’ – was also declining.

In the 2017 bestseller iGen, the American psychologist Jean Twenge blamed “smartphone immersion and over-protective parenting” for what she dubbed “an anxious generation’s tardiness in reaching adult milestones such as dating, driving, getting a Saturday job and generally embracing the outside world”.

It’s a funny twist of fate as young people are now doing what parents have been nagging them to do for ages: be sensible, stay out of trouble, and concentrate on their homework. The increase in online searches for “Why does my teen stay in their room all day” shows that on some deep level, parents know this is not ‘normal’ behaviour.

Are teens indeed withdrawing from society and missing out on the experiences necessary to develop into world-wise and well-adjusted adults? Or are the middle-aged merely misunderstanding the difficult business of being young, as has been the case for generations?

The repercussions of this new attitude are most obvious in Manchester in the UK, which has Europe’s largest student population. “Rather than going out to big events, they’re buying a bottle of vodka from Sainsbury’s and having a house party,” says Sacha Lord, night-time economy advisor to the mayor of Greater Manchester.

As mentioned, much of this has to do with the rising cost of living. It’s cheaper to get hammered at home than in a club where a tequila costs R45.

For young people, the cost to rent a place, buy food, and cover transport has taken away almost all of the money usually left over to go party.

“We’re seeing a rising mental health crisis for students and part of that is isolation because people can’t socialise. It’s become all about being able to pay your rent and bills, and get your degree.”

While the under-24 group are more likely than the middle-aged to report feelings of loneliness, it is unclear if this is due to a true sense of isolation or just because they are teens. “There’s not a huge amount of data on the young going back years and years, so it’s difficult to know exactly how things have changed,” says Lily Verity, a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Manchester who studies adolescent loneliness.

But things are definitely changing. The internet and social media were never around when the current crop of parents grew up, so going out and socialising was how we rolled. Kids today have ‘more’ friends than we ever had, despite most of them being only an avatar and a voice. Does that make the connection and friendship less real? Perhaps, but just as our parents couldn’t understand how we could ‘drink coffee’ at a friend’s house every day for hours on end, or shake our young booty at a club all night, we might simply not ‘get it’.

The only way to really know if this new ‘stay-at-home’ lifestyle is bad for the kids, is to wait and see. Or perhaps they’re just being teens.

[source:guardian]