Nearly half of all Thais – namely teens and working adults – say they suffer from loneliness, according to a new study.
Technology was blamed for the estimated 26.75 million people experiencing some degree of loneliness, according to the results of a survey released Wednesday by Mahidol University.
“We currently live in a digital society where people give priority to their time on social media which, in turn, gives them less opportunity to meet others face to face. This leads to fewer marriages, more divorces, more single people and more broken families,” Boonying Kongarchapatara of the school’s College of Management said in the study’s forward.
The university based its results on a poll of 1,126 people surveyed online, 40.4 percent of whom said they either were starting to feel lonely, felt very lonely or experienced chronic loneliness.
Working-age adults (23-40) were identified as the loneliest age group. Most indicated that they wanted to vent but had no one they could sufficiently express themselves to. They were closely followed by young adults (18-22) who indicated that they didn’t feel valued, included or accepted. Older adults (41-60) ranked third on the lonely heart scale, while seniors over 60 reported feeling the least lonely.
Over half of those who reported feeling lonely – 59.6 percent – said they were okay with it.
Using social media, visiting cafes or restaurants and shopping were identified as the top three coping mechanisms for solitary souls of either gender.
Facebook was identified as the platform that contributed most to a sense of isolation, followed by Line, Instagram and Twitter. Scrolling through social media was identified as the unhealthiest behavior of lonely people, followed by chatting over the phone and posting photos.
The team used the UCLA Loneliness Scale – a 20-item assessment to evaluate how often someone feels disconnected from others – as their primary measurement, Tappawan Suraikimhan of the survey team told Coconuts Bangkok this morning.
The university did not disclose how participants were contacted, nor did it publicize its margin of error.
Subjects who scored above a certain threshold were directly interviewed about their feelings and desires by the Mahidol researchers.
The survey also found the trend wasn’t unique to the kingdom but a global phenomenon. “Loner living,” it noted, was identified as a top consumer trend worldwide this year by market research firm Euromonitor International.
Reader Interactions