Young adults prefer online chat to speaking to strangers

Young people would rather use social media or talk online to people they do not know than have a conversation face to face, research has suggested.

Those aged 18 to 24 are 20 times more likely to never speak to their neighbours than those aged 55 and over, a survey carried out on behalf of Cancer Research UK found.

Experts said the research showed an increasing generational divide between how millennials and baby boomers prefer to communicate.