Loneliness in the Digital Age
Investigating how constant device use contributes to loneliness among Gen Z
Mentor
Time line
September 2024 - December 2024 (four months)
My Role
Single entrepreneur
UX research
Product manage
UX design
Team
Single entrepreneur
Project Overview
This project explores loneliness in the digital age, specifically the isolation felt by young adults when trying to disconnect from their electronic devices.
Think about the struggle of putting down your phone, closing your laptop, or logging off after hours of scrolling. That hesitation—almost a sense of loss—mirrors the feeling many of us had as kids when we were forced to turn off the TV. Why does disconnecting feel so difficult? And what does that reveal about our relationship with technology and loneliness?
This project examines the emotional weight of digital detachment and how it shapes our sense of connection in a hyper-connected world.
Target audience
Young adult age 18 to 22
Problam
Young adults are addicted to technology devices, and feel loneliness once turn it off. they have hard time to connect with the real world.
Pain points
Information overload
Existing habit
Low motivation
Problem Define
Target Audience
Why 18 to 22, because generation Z those between 18 and 22, are 'the loneliest generation’. In United states 40% of the the young adult in age 18 to 22 are self-reported struggling being addicted to social media.
40%
of young Americans claim to be addicted to social media
40%, that is more than 8 million people
Persona
Alex Liu
Age 19
Alex is a sophomore computer science college student.
He moved to a larger city for college and is now living in an apartment near campus. He is highly active on social media but often feel disconnected from in-person relationships.
Time manage
FOMO
Snapchat
Discord
Sense of belonging
Meaningful connections
TikTok
X
Healthier digital habits
CS2
Market size
loneliness population among youth over years
An analysis of a federal survey shows increasing rates of teen and young adult respondents reporting a major depressive episode in the last 12 months.
the number of people suffering from depression has been increasing significantly since 2006, the first iPhone released.
Problem Area
My perspective
I have experience period of time addicted to the social medias, games, and those entertainment services. I always feel the strong guilty and anxiety after I finally turn them off trying to go back to work. The feeling of loneliness could be define as FOMO, but I think it is not quiet precise yet. The uncomfortable is cause by long time immerse in the digital world and lost the connect to the real world. It happened when we don't spend enough time in the real world while we are live in the real wold. I wan to help people who suffer with the loneliness.
users' perspective
"“Thousands of hours” its real when you say it like that"
"4 hours of scrolling a day is 17 years of your life?"
Experts' perspective
A 2018 University of Pennsylvania study states that there are greater feelings of loneliness among people who use social media more frequently.
“Using less social media than you normally would leads to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness. These effects are particularly pronounced for folks who were more depressed when they came into the study.”
— Psychologist Melissa G. Hunt. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology
“We have overprotected children in the real world and under-protected them in the virtual world.”
— Jonathan Haidt. The Anxious Generation
What cause the loneliness actually? Is it really just phone?
Research
Interview quotes
Vicky Chang
“I don’t feel guilty when using social media now, I know how to control that”
“I saw cs student using their devices all the time...but they don’t feel loneliness.”
Ray Kuo
What people addicted to before technology?
Think about what causes the loneliness, I look at what people addicted to before technology generation. People addicted to smoke, alcohol, and even morphine.
People want the dopamine fast and high right away. Their dopamine system (homeostasis) cause the uncomfortable.
Who is and isn’t easily addicted to dopamine? What are the control and dependent variables?
People with:
healthy habits,
strong emotional regulation,
stable social environment,
good impulse control...
Pain points
