Chinese university students who order takeaway ready meals frequently might have a higher possibility of becoming depressed, indicates a recently released survey.

The study, which was launched in 2018 by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, investigated the physical and mental health of college students and graduates in 18 universities across the country.

It’s found in the survey that these young adults, who said they frequently ate delivery food alone, had lower self evaluation of their physical and mental health.

The fact that the frequency of take-outs is positively correlated with the degree of depression among students does not mean that more take-outs will lead to depression, said Chang Ying, media commentator of Guangming Daily.

The popularity of online food ordering reflects a weakening in the social ability of college students, Chang noted.

Dining together is the easiest way to socialize. If students have no communication with the outside for long, their communication skills will get weaker and the risk of being depressed is likely to rise, said the commentator.

With a mobile phone, people can chat with people in real time via WeChat, establish connection through likes and comments, and order food on an O2O application.

As the Internet is everywhere, college students are more addicted to socializing online behind the screen. It turns out that they feel more indifferent to offline social activities, and feel that it is harder to build a group identity in real life, she added.

A previous study proves that people are easy to feel pessimistic deep inside when they indulge in online social networking but fear to build connections via real-life by means of social interactions.

Social needs, which are centered on belongingness, or a need to form and maintain lasting social connections, remains a major part in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, said Chang.

She suggests all college students entertain themselves by putting down their mobile phones and having more time to being with friends.