Record low 67% of high school seniors did not see friends ‘almost every day’ last year 

Fewer than ever before, teens are meeting up with friends to go to the mall, go to the movies or just hang out, experts say.

A leading US survey found that two-thirds of high school students stopped meeting their friends almost every day last year, reports say. In comparison: in 2010, just over half saw no friends almost every day.

Experts blame the shift on the rise of social media, with young people now spending more time on screens and talking electronically than on real-life encounters.

They warned that this could be linked to the rise in mental health problems in children – with 60 per cent of teenage girls now feeling persistently sad compared to 36 per cent in 2011 – and an increase in feelings of loneliness among young people.

The proportion of young women experiencing persistent depression is at its highest level in about 10 years

The figures from Monitoring the Future – a leading study of approximately 50,000 children and conducted by the University of Michigan – were reported by DC-based publication The hill.

The research shows that when it first started in the 1970s, about half of high school students — ages 17 to 18 — met up with their friends on an almost daily basis.

But over the following decades, this share has gradually shrunk to less than a third today.

The strongest decline was recorded around 2010, just as smartphones and social media were introduced.

Around this time there was also a wave of psychological problems and feelings of loneliness among young people.

Dr. Jean Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University, told the publication, “Teens spend a lot more time communicating electronically with each other and a lot less time interacting face-to-face.

“Going to the mall has decreased. Driving for fun has decreased. Going to the movies has decreased.

“We’re talking about kids who spend five, six, seven hours a day on social media.”

Teens may be spending more time on social media to feel more connected to their peers and to avoid FOMO or fear of missing out.

But all this regular use seems to come at the cost of meeting someone in real life.

Psychologists have found that meeting friends in real life helps foster feelings of friendship and build trust and rapport with another person.

It can also help reduce feelings of loneliness while increasing one’s social skills and self-confidence.

However, the evidence for the benefits of using social media is less clear, with studies suggesting that young people who are online regularly are more likely to feel lonely.

Researchers suggest this may be because they constantly watch other people’s interactions online, which makes them feel left out.

But they cannot rule out that the increase is also due to the fact that people who feel lonely spend more time on social media.