| dc.description.abstract | Loneliness is experienced across cultures and matters at all ages. Although the phenomenon of loneliness may be universal, it is conceptualized differently, shaped by the socio-cultural context. While significant research exists on older people’s experiences of loneliness, relatively little attention has been given to studying children and young people. Therefore, having identified a gap in research, this thesis explores adolescents’ sensemaking of loneliness within the Malaysian context. Moving beyond child-centeredness, this research focuses on the role of culture, language, and social media in shaping adolescents’ knowledge production process. Within this aim, this research is guided by social constructionist and relational approaches that both highlight the situatedness and context-dependence of adolescents’ perspectives of loneliness. To gain an in-depth understanding of this topic, a qualitative research methodology was employed and a total of nine participants aged between 13 – 17 were recruited. As a study positioned within the field of Childhood Studies that perceives adolescents as meaning-makers and social actors, drawing and sentence completion activities were used in addition to semi-structured interviews to facilitate participation and the inclusion of adolescents’ voices.
The analysis underscores the significant role of cultural values, i.e., emphasis on collectivism, in shaping the participants’ understanding of loneliness through informing their expectations for social connectedness. The term loneliness is also found to convey different meanings in different languages, resulting in nuanced views of the phenomenon. As such, loneliness requires relational analysis of the socio-cultural context that co-constructs these perspectives. Furthermore, loneliness is found to be associated with certain themes that are culturally meaningful and need to be interpreted within context. Other than the dualistic of good and evil, the findings also highlight other possibilities of social media’s role in influencing one’s perspective of loneliness. It echoes the relational perspective that recognizes individuals’ role in influencing and transforming media interactions in an ongoing process of meaning-making. These insights on loneliness have implications for expanding the possibilities of identification, interpretation, and intervention of loneliness, which is beyond the individual and encompasses relations not just between humans but also between humans and technology. | |
