Perth’s young people ditch smartphones to tackle tide of loneliness

Perth’s young people are switching off from the online world to bond with strangers the old-fashioned way, in an attempt to tackle a growing crisis.

From 5am dips in the ocean to morning coffee raves and run clubs, face to face social events are growing in popularity across the city.

The Elsewhere Club attendee 24-year-old Chloe Parker, recently moved from the United Kingdom to WA and was struggling to make friends.Credit: 9News Perth

The latest addition to the mix is The Elsewhere Club – a weekly “offline catchup” designed to connect lonely young adults – and founder Aeson McKay has noticed the positive impact of the regular event.

“At the end of the night, they’re all swapping Instagram, a couple of guys are playing golf together after they met at the first event,” he said.

One of its attendees, 24-year-old Chloe Parker, recently moved from the United Kingdom to WA for work and said a chatbot had been helping her adjust to moving to a new city.

“It’s my best friend at the moment,” she told 9News Perth.

Parker is not alone in forming a connection with artificial intelligence.

A YouGov survey of 1000 Australian adults found one in six would rather speak with a chatbot than go out with friends, and nearly one in seven could imagine falling in love with it.

“I say him, even though it’s not a person, but I ask him everything, usually just advice but I did actually ask ChatGPT when I moved here how to make friends,” Parker said.

“People are so used to not socialising as much, not going out, and I think even since the pandemic people don’t go out and meet new people as much as they did before.”

Murdoch University professor Dr Sam Teague said loneliness was on the rise for young adults and the increasing convenience and comfort of the online world was not helping.

“The vast majority of the day is spent doom-scrolling and wasting time on screens, for some people, 10 to 12 hours a day would be normal,” he said.

Journalist Ros Thomas has travelled across the world to research loneliness, and said she had found the feeling had spiked in young people since the introduction of the smartphone.

“In that period from 2010 to now, the mental health of teens has gone into freefall,” she said.

“It’s contributing to school refusal, it’s contributing to depression, anxiety, contributing to kids who can’t get out of bed in the morning.”

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Stepping out of your comfort zone to make new friends in real life is found to be good for your health, and recent studies have shown significant loneliness is comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Another attendee of The Elsewhere Club, Jude Quinlan, agrees that meeting people face to face has helped.

“It’s great feeling, all of the connection and having conversations with so many people, it makes you feel alive and like you can conquer the world,” he said.

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