Behavioral experts are sounding the alarm about a rise in young adults staying home on weekends to “bed rot” in front of digital screens — a money-saving trend they say has exacerbated isolation habits formed during the pandemic.
“We are witnessing a happiness crash in America today, concentrated among younger adults who don’t even leave the house for free activities,” said Brad Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociologist. “It comes from less socializing and less dating, correlated with a rise in cheap digital entertainment that distracts them into a kind of social death.”
Public opinion surveys have found fewer young people leaving their childhood homes or starting romantic relationships since COVID-19 health restrictions pushed them to study and socialize online.
The Harris Poll reported Wednesday that staying home on weekends has become the “default plan” for 73% of adults ages 18 to 29 who responded to a recent poll, with 71% spending at least half their weekends watching TV, streaming shows or playing video games.
Half of this Generation Z age group reported feeling lonely on weekends — the highest of any age group surveyed — and 65% said they socialized more on their phones than in person. Most cited finances rather than personal enjoyment as their top reason for staying home.
“When you look at why they’re staying home, saving money and recharging top the list, not screen preference,” said Tim Osiecki, director of thought leadership and trends at the Harris Poll.
“The phone is not delivering what they actually need,” Mr. Osiecki said in an email. “It’s a placeholder, not a preference.”
During the pandemic emergency, public health experts cited increased screen time for driving up anxiety and depression among young people who spent their key formative years online.
Many of those teens and college students matured into young adults accustomed to shutting themselves away from a society that normalized their daily screen time, and mental health experts say these young adults see no reason to reengage with the outside world now that restrictions are over.
“They are pulled more into the cyber world, leaving behind more of the real world of face-to-face contacts,” said Ray Guarendi, a Catholic media personality and family psychologist in North Canton, Ohio.
Psychologists warn that social media algorithms have become more addictive, especially for young people who form intense romantic bonds with artificial intelligence companions that send them sexual messages late into the night.
The loneliest generation
In recent years, polls from Gallup, Harvard and the American Psychiatric Association have found adults born after 1997 reporting higher levels of loneliness than older generations.
Meanwhile, places for social interaction, such as shopping malls, have grown scarce.
Capital One Shopping has projected that 25% of the nation’s roughly 1,200 shopping malls will close by 2028, driven by declining foot traffic and increased online shopping. That builds on a net loss of 18,730 mall stores from 2016 to 2024.
“It is somewhat problematic,” said Michael New, a professor of social research at the Catholic University of America, referring to the lack of social outlets. “Romantic attachments are more likely to take place in person than online.”
The Harris Poll results published Wednesday also found that 73% of adults younger than 30 said they wished they had more places to socialize where alcohol was not the main focus.
Allison J. Bonacci, director of education for Cyber Safety Consulting, an Illinois-based company that works with schools to develop internet safety policies, said that resonates with her as the mother of three teenage boys.
“We need to think creatively about creating more ’third spaces,’ places that aren’t home or work, where people can gather without spending a lot of money and without alcohol being the centerpiece,” Ms. Bonacci said.
Psychologist Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University addiction researcher, rejected the argument that finances are the main thing keeping young people home.
“There’s an addictive quality to devoting weekends to screen time,” Mr. Humphreys said. “It feels good in the short term and damages your life in the long term.”
Several analysts cited recent upticks in young men attending church and in meetup groups for “technology-light experiences” as signs that the trend could reverse.
A Gallup report published in April found that 42% of men ages 18-29 described religion as “very important” to their lives in 2024 and 2025, up from 28% surveyed in 2022 and 2023. That figure was higher than the 30% of women who said the same and marked the first time in 25 years of polling that men outpaced women on the question.
“Religion might be the major catalyst that reverses this trend of social isolation and replaces the alcohol-centered socializing of the past,” said psychologist Matthew Mulvaney, a parenting researcher at Syracuse University in upstate New York.
The U.S. Catholic Church reported a 38% year-over-year increase in adult converts during the most recent Easter weekend, driven by young men in their 20s.
“Something has to change [the] epidemic of loneliness, particularly around young men,” Mr. Mulvaney said in an email. “They aren’t finding partners or, in many cases, maintaining social contacts.”
The Harris survey was conducted online from May 28 to June 6 among 4,100 U.S. adults 18 and older. The polling company did not provide the margin of error.
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