I haven’t found the polling data for this one yet, but I found the stuff from one last year that they did through Ipsos. It doesn’t look like a push poll, but it’s definitely from a small charity with a specific aim.
This article has a few more numbers from the 2026 survey. And, the headline in the article from the independent seems misleading.
Yet despite this, many young people are using technology itself to ease their social isolation. One in four (25%) say that talking to an AI chatbot feels easier than talking to a real person, and 14% confess they would turn to an AI or a virtual assistant when feeling lonely. Around one in five (18%) say these AI conversations actually make them feel less lonely, with the top reasons being that AI is always available, never judges, and feels easier to open up to.
65% admit they have, at times, cancelled in-person plans to spend time online instead.
Feels easier is not the same as would rather. Have cancelled is not the same as would cancel.
And in any case, that’s very ambiguous and I want to know if the question specified what “spend time online” meant. Discord? Twitch? MMORPG? Watching shows? Or did it specify social media