Loneliness in the Digital Age (LIDA): Developing Strategies for Empathy and Trust

Loneliness is one of the most significant challenges facing Western society in the 21st century. Not only does research suggest that 1 in 10 people are lonely, our radically transforming society threatens to make the situation significantly worse. Increasingly large proportions of our lives are being lived in online environments, more people are now working from home, away from the social environment of the communal office, and workers are commonly expected to work away from home for protracted periods of time. The creation of a borderless Europe has also contributed to a more mobile workforce, where working away from home for periods of time is no longer unusual, especially for younger people. While much of the previous research on loneliness has focused upon chronic loneliness, it is this new breed of the 'transient lonely' that is more vulnerable to episodic periods of loneliness and it is the episodically lonely who are less likely to take steps to deal with bouts of loneliness.
LIDA seeks to map different experiences and responses to loneliness in both online and offline environments and, through the use of co-design and creative methodologies, explore the potential for creative interventions in online environments to help manage periods of loneliness by harnessing empathy for, and with, others. We intend to work with three temporarily separated groups: (i) migrant workers moving to the UK for employment; ii) young offenders who are being reintegrated into their communities, and; iii) personnel who are stationed temporarily overseas). By engaging with members of these communities throughout as co-researchers and co-designers, this project will establish new ways of using digital technology to address this emerging social issues. We will also look to explore what commonalities these groups have in how they experience and manage moments of loneliness in their everyday lives, and examine individual differences in how the home, the workplace, and the objects and people surrounding our participants influence these.
Our project will begin by working with partnering organisations to identify people representing these groups willing to participate in the research. Following this, interviews and focus group discussions will capture rich insights into the lives of our participants, focusing on their biographies and experiences as they relate to recent transitions in their lives. This will provide us a basis with which to map the 'episodes' of loneliness experienced by these individuals, whether they are managed online or offline, and what role empathy and trust plays in ameliorating these experiences. Quantitative measures will also be developed at this stage to enable evaluation of Phase 2 activities. This will involve surveying participants in those activities before and after engagement. This longitudinal survey will also be extended to other members of the targeted communities to provide a causal test of the relationship between online experiences and social involvement.
The second phase will focus on developing new technologies to counteract negative experiences related to loneliness and separation identified in the first phase of work. At first, we will return to our previous participants to gather their responses and input on our initial findings. Following this, researchers with a background in community engagement, the creative arts and technology design will work with our participants either on their own or during group workshops to co-create a set of provocative new design concepts to alleviate their moments of loneliness. The result of these engagements will be a set of provocative new technologies and creative activities that will be given to a small number of our participants for a period of several months. This 'real world' field trial of these innovative technologies will enrich our existing knowledge of how technology and creative practice may alleviate experiences of loneliness through harness empathy.

As outlined in the attached 'Pathways to Impact' document, the Impact Plan for this project is predicated on a continuing programme of activities; wide and deep engagement with stakeholders; collaboration with the Project Advisory Board and Knowledge Exchange/Impact teams from across the participating universities; and a public communications strategy. It is our belief that this project has the potential to make significant policy, economic and societal (well-being) impacts and we have identified a number of non-academic beneficiaries, which include:

1. Individuals, their families and their communities who are at risk from episodic loneliness for a variety of reasons will benefit from learning creative strategies and the use of new technologies to manage loneliness episodes through increased levels of empathy and trust.

2. Businesses, employers and trades unions who have obligations in ensuring the well-being of workers who are temporarily separated from their home and community life will benefit by learning tools and techniques to help them better support such employees. As such the benefits here will also be economic to the employer, the employee and to the UK more generally.

3. Voluntary and professional organisations who exist to support individuals and groups who may be at risk from episodic loneliness, for example, various migrant worker support organisations and The Samaritans, will benefit by learning new ways to help build empathy and trust on line and thus mitigate against feelings of loneliness.

4. Government will benefit from this research by gaining insight into how empathy and trust can be built in online environments and so help tackle the increasingly concerning issue of loneliness. In this way, policymakers will have access to research that will enable the development of effective and evidence-based policy in the area.

5. Health and social care professionals, (such as GPs, psychiatric nurses and mental health services) who are dealing regularly with the mental and physiological consequences of increased loneliness will benefit from gaining a better understanding of how building empathy and trust can help deal with loneliness and also by having access to technologies and strategies that are non medication-based.

Whilst for the three years of this project, it is our intention to focus on a particular set of vulnerable groups, we believe that there is significant opportunity for upscaling in the longer term. As such we believe that this research has the potential not only to contribute towards improving the health and well-being of individuals, but will lead to economic and social benefits, as well as informed policy-making.