A quarter of Gen Z teenagers are too nervous to shake hands, a new survey has revealed.
The poll - carried out on 2,000 parents and 1,200 youngsters for ACS International Schools - found that 24 per cent would avoid shaking someone's hand as a greeting.
Meanwhile, 36 per cent of young people said they felt too shy to make eye contact during a conversation.
In another damning indictment of youngsters' social skills, 59 per cent of respondents said they went out of their way to avoid making small talk.
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The research also revealed that 28 per cent found it challenging to pick up the phone to an unknown number or answer the doorbell.
Parents echoed these sentiments, with just under 70 per cent saying their children's generation was less confident than previous cohorts.
A staggering 96 per cent said they felt as if face-to-face interactions were being replaced by emojis and text messages.
The parents have blamed the decline of social skills on the rise of the digital world, with 73 per cent saying they believe the change has been caused by youngsters spending too much time on the internet.
The survey found that 24 per cent of young people would avoid shaking someone's hand as a greeting
|GETTY
One of the report's authors, Dr Robert Harrison, urged schools to teach children to be more confident in social settings.
He said: “This generation has not lost the ability to communicate.
"But they are in danger of losing the confidence that effective communication requires.
“Schools that understand this, and act on it, will equip their students to thrive in the world.
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Parents have blamed the decline of social skills on the rise of the digital world
|GETTY
“Just as artificial intelligence makes human communication skills more valuable than ever, we are raising a generation that appears to avoid them.”
The troubling survey also revealed record levels of reported social anxiety among youngsters.
Three quarters of Gen Z teens say they struggle with it, meanwhile 81 per cent said they were worried about how it will impact the trajectory of their life.
And just 26 per cent said they felt completely confident in voicing their opinions if they do not agree with someone else.
Three-quarters of Gen Z teens say they struggle with social anxiety
|GETTY
Though many parents have laid the blame at the door of social media and the online world, researchers say the impact of the pandemic could also be a significant factor.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, almost half of children saw a decline in their emotional and social skills during lockdown.
Meanwhile, just one in six youngsters reported showing an improvement in these key life skills during the turbulent period.
The age bracket which saw the biggest impact were children aged four to seven - who were 10 per cent more likely to have seen their social development worsen compared to 12 to 15-year-olds (52 to 42 per cent).
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