I guess I just assumed that once I was at school that like that was gonna be it.
I was gonna have a million friends.
I was gonna just party all the time and it was just gonna be lit but it's just not really like that.
Like I haven't really found anyone I'm super close with and
like I spent a lot of time in my dorm room and all the people I talked to
like they always say the same thing or like I swear to God you're gonna find your people.
But like where are they?
This is a clip from a video made by Emery Bergman a first-year student at Cornell University in the US.
She produced the video for a course she was taking in digital media in 2018 before the COVID-19 pandemic bought social and physical isolation to millions.
The video went viral racking up more than half a million views since it was uploaded.
The sense of loneliness she expresses in the video is not unique.
YouTube is filled with videos with titles such as I'm 23 and have no friends.
I found out why I have no friends and no friends no family and left behind in life.
According to the Office for National Statistics 7.1% of adults in Great Britain nearly 4 million people say they are often or always lonely.
Look around when you're in a crowded place a supermarket or an office.
One in 14 of the people you're looking at are likely to be lonely not just sometimes but most of the time.
And that's half a million more people saying that they feel chronically lonely in 2023 than there were in 2020.
Suggesting that the pandemic has had some enduring impacts in this respect.
The World Health Organization has recently announced a new Commission on Social Connection to address loneliness as a pressing health threat.
Warning that people without strong enough social connections are at higher risk of stroke,