​During the pandemic, 30.9% of adults felt their well-being had been affected by feelings of loneliness (UK Gov, 2020).

The pandemic has transformed how we think about mental health, wellbeing, and loneliness. In the past year, the US government have expressed their concerns over the ‘loneliness epidemic’. The power of human connection has the ability to boost our mood and strengthen overall mental health, and wellbeing.

The Mental Health Awareness week topic this year is loneliness. We wanted to explore the power of connection and community to support mental health in our most recent SODA Social panel discussion in collaboration with Code Institute for our most recent Hackathon panel. The conversation uncovered what can tech organisations be doing to support employees’ wellbeing, the stigma behind loneliness, and why people adopt different personas online vs. in the real world. Is technology increasing loneliness? Or can we use technology to eradicate loneliness?

The panel then revealed the impacts of loneliness on mental health and wellbeing, how communities can connect people, and how we can prevent Generation Z and future generations from experiencing loneliness. Our panel were in agreement that technological advancements have the ability to enrich our lives and bridge the gap to improve loneliness.