College Student Loneliness

aunt_bea
Fri, 19 Oct 2018 19:22:58 +0000

Here is the thing: society has changed, drastically, in the way that young people communicate. Everything is done via mobile or tech devices. People don’t appear to have the need to communicate face to face and NOW they don’t know how.

Unfortunately, my profession will be growing because people do not know how to initiate conversations or how to maintain the topic and then, they can’t read body language.

I recently went to a restaurant with my family for lunch. Every family around us was on their phones, no conversations. What a difference when we went a week or so later, to an older Chinese food restaurant; patrons of every culture, yet, no phones! Lots of conversations going on, toddlers making happy noises, laughter, smiles. This could be happening in any restaurant, but it doesn’t. But I digress.

So, my suggestion would be that you find a volunteer organization, at your school, that performs/conducts social services: community clinics, food banks, clothing, sierra club/recycling etc. You’d be amazed how many people you meet and how you will find your tribe. That’s how my daughter found her friends. She volunteered at a low-cost diabetic clinic that serviced patients without insurance and who had volunteer medical staff from her university. Since she is bilingual, and had a biomedical program at her high school, she could take vitals and knew how to do labs. She found her tribe.