A Generation Z, which includes individuals born between 1997 and 2012, has encountered significant challenges in terms of forming and maintaining friendships, aspects that have a lasting impact on their lives. Several surveys, including those carried out by institutions such as Dartmouth College, highlight this social difficulty faced by this generation.
The importance of social connections in everyone's life is widely supported by studies, highlighting their crucial role in the feeling of belonging, health, well-being and happiness. However, for Generation Z, the task of forming and preserving friendships has proven to be complex, bringing challenges never experienced before.
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In the context of the pandemic, restrictions and lockdowns related to Covid-19 have had a significant impact on soft skills. Social isolation measures, which restricted face-to-face work and face-to-face teaching in schools and universities, ended up making social interaction difficult for this generation.
Experts point out that these restrictions have affected Generation Z's ability to build and maintain friendships, which has been an ongoing challenge for these young people.
The pandemic has disrupted the social relationship of Generation Z
Joyce Chuinkam, Senior Research Manager at Talk Shoppe, a market research agency based in Los Angeles, noted that during the pandemic, friendships suffered from a lack of consistency.
Through interviews with millennials and Gen Z, Chuinkam explored the impact of the pandemic restrictions on their friendships. The answers revealed that inconstancy in social relationships undermined the ability of these generations to cultivate and maintain solid friendships.
Miriam Kirmayer, clinical psychologist and friendship expert, pointed out that shared and constant experiences, like school and work, were crucial to facilitating friendships in Gen Z.
Many young adults of this generation entered the workforce without having the opportunity to form friendships in conventional ways, such as during school. These young people must deal with the experiences, both good and bad, that they may encounter.
These social experiences are fundamental to the formation of the individual, a process that was undermined during the pandemic. Therefore, Generation Z may face difficulties related to “first moments”.
This absence of social “probation” has resulted in a failure to develop essential social skills now needed in the post-pandemic era.
Generation Z realized that many of the skills needed to form friendships and build strong relationships were not properly acquired.
Building on these findings, research by Janice McCabe, associate professor of sociology at Dartmouth College, pointed out behavior considered “antisocial” among students College students.
The study, developed over several years through interviews, identified that the pandemic negatively impacted participants' ability to maintain existing friendships and establish new ones connections.
The dearth of face-to-face social interactions during this challenging time has significantly impacted college students' social lives.
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