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Paul Snape - The Way Youth Zone

The Chris Allen Podcast

Tuesday, 12 November 2024 - 11 minutes

Paul Snape in Conversation with Chris Allen and William Coorey talking about Generation Isolation and the impact and value of bringing young people together for activities and support.

Generation Isolation, England’s largest study of its kind into how young people aged 11 to 18 years, launched in 2022 and is now in its third year. This year’s survey of 5,213 11 to 18 year olds in England was carried out online by YouGov between 23 August and 6 September 2024. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all 11 to 18 year olds in England.

  • 24% of 11–18-year-olds in the West Midlands spend most of their free time on their smartphone
  • 54% of the West Midlands’ young people would like to break the habit but 48% don’t know how 
  • Young people in the West Midlands feel lonely and anxious – 47% have high or very high feelings of loneliness while 52% have high or very high feelings of anxiety
  • Young people in the West Midlands are crying out for real-life social experiences in their community – 30% say more affordable leisure activities like youth centres would do the most to improve their life outside school, while 24% want safe, fun social places to hang out with friends.

Youth charity OnSide’s Generation Isolation, the largest study of its type into the way 11–18-year-olds spend their free time, today reveals that young people want to reduce the amount of time they spend on their phones - but simply don’t know how to break the habit.

The new report in England in partnership with YouGov shows that smartphone use is one of the free time activities for young people in the West Midlands with 24% spending most of their free time when not in school on their smartphone.

The Way Youth Zone, is part of OnSide’s network of 15 Youth Zones and provides vital youth worker support and engaging activities for over 2,500 young people in the West Midlands each year. It has today reacted to the findings by calling for better, real-life alternatives to smartphone dependency. Specifically, for every young person to have access to high-quality youth centres and dedicated youth workers to help them build rich, real life social connections and experiences that are more compelling than the lure of a smartphone.

For more information go to www.wcrfm.com and click on the Way Youth Zone logo.

 

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