Is Brexit proof that some issues should not be decided by referendum?

2016 was certainly a year of outrage. The changing political situation in the United States as well as Great Britain provoked heated political discussions all over the world and seems to have divided the nations. Brexit was equally as shocking to the world as it was to a large part of Britain, even though more than half of the population voted leave. 

Does the root of the problem lay within the process of deciding through referendum? 

In my opinion the problem is not the democratic approach of letting the people vote, but more so the political awareness of the population and the voter turnout. If we would start to consider certain issues to be too important and/or complex to be voted on by the population, which will actually be affected, we would undermine the concept of democracy. 

Brexit shows that not enough young people voted, which means they did not take the chance to decide over their own future. The turnout was much higher in areas with older voters who mostly voted leave, whilst the majority of the younger population voted remain. The result was, that leave won by a narrow margin and a large part of the population of the United Kingdom was in outrage. 

As far as I am concerned issues which will affect the population so directly should still be decided by referendum, but it is crucial that citizen take responsibility for their nations future, inform themselves, critically analyze the situation and actually turn up to vote.