Millennials Think Never Finding Love Is Scarier Than Terrorism And Homelessness

Millennials get a lot of shit for being whiny and lazy, but have our critics even considered all of the stuff we've got to deal with? (Student debt! An awful economy! The inability to afford a house and start a family because of said student debt and awful economy! Terrorism! A crappy political system! Global epidemics! How are we supposed to achieve ~the American dream~ with all THIS?) 

Anyway. I need a drink. 

But when VICELAND UK conducted a survey of its millennial readers to find out what they were most afraid of, you know what they picked? 

Nope, not ISIS. And not homelessness or losing their jobs, either – most millennials (31 percent of the group polled) said they were most afraid of never finding love. And when you broke down those results by relationship status, a whopping 42 percent of single millennials said being single forever was the scariest thing they could think of.

"This fear of not finding love is, on some level, driven by isolation," wrote VICELAND editor Hannah Ewens. "It speaks volumes about self worth."

So are we just not as confident in Tinder as we seem or...? VICELAND guessed this fear could be chalked up to a number of things. For instance, a lot of us grew up in divorced households and are cautious about commitment. The way we date and maintain friendships could play a part, too; since we stay connected via social media and apps, "ghosting" (or cutting off all communication with someone in the hopes that they'll "get the hint" you don't want to see them again) has become a thing.

Plus, "we're taught that interdependence is weak and individualism is to be celebrated — we don't want to be our mum or dad in our late 40s, divorced and lost, surrounded by the pieces of a half-baked identity," writes VICELAND's Ewens. 

"Yet when it comes down to hopes and fears," she concluded, "we're no different to our parents and their parents and anyone who came before us. We want to be our grandparents, linking arms for a walk to the shop and pissing each other off as way of conversation. We want something that will last."

What do you think — is loneliness as terrifying as your peers think it is, or are we overreacting?