Awareness Project On Social Issue Of Solitude Loneliness And Isolation In Age Of Technology

ABC Charitable Organization

I. Proposal

With the increasing use of technology, internet and social media, loneliness and isolation has been increasing in the age of technology. Thus, in the age of technology, it is essential to understand the negative effects of increasing dependence on technology in daily life.  The awareness and training program will help in decreasing the loneliness and isolation.

II. Organization Description and History

The project will be lead by ABC charitable organization that will be in charge of managing and implementation of this programme that aims in generation of awareness regarding the increased use and reliance of technology, social media channels and internet. The charitable organization has been working for a decade on generating awareness among different individuals.  The charitable organization ABC aims in understanding the problems that the youths are facing due to increasing use of mobile and other digital devices.  The charitable organization Berry Street focuses developing a healthy society by focusing on two main areas which includes development of healthy society by arranging awareness programs and to provide support to those individuals who need medical help for increasing anxiety and loneliness.

The ABC charitable organization is chosen for this awareness program as the charitable organization has a considerable experience in the awareness and training program. The project is particularly complex since increasing addiction to the digital devices is a significant issue across the globe. It has been identified that the increasing friendship with the virtual friends, is one of the most significant reasons behind the increase in loneliness and therefore, this issue is needed to be addressed.  

This project is needed since the loneliness and isolation is resulting in depression and increased anxiety mainly in youth. Thus, this project is necessary and therefore the sponsorship for this project should not be difficult to achieve.  Since the project aims in generating awareness, a maximum number of participants are expected. The project is expected to get funds from the government a proposal for the same will be sent. Other investors will be approached as well and it is expected that funds for the project will be approved since the organization has been handling similar types of projects over the years. With the success of this awareness project, similar other projects can be arranged in future as well. ABC charitable organization is known to follow a planned approach of project implementation and therefore the probability of the success of the project is higher.

There is no denying the fact that the identified problem exists and as the solution to the problem in the awareness project that is proposed. Since the ABC charitable organization has been handling similar types of projects over the years, it is expected that the project will reach a large number of audiences. Greater audience reach is essential for this project mainly because it addresses a major social issue associated with continuous use of technology.

III. Background

The negative effects of increase in reliance on technology and its different application is increase in dependence on virtual world and isolation from the real world. The project is needed since the current condition is leading to increase in anxiety and depression especially in young adults and middle aged individual. The social media use is increasing among the children as well. Thus individuals are needed to be aware about the negative impacts of social media and need to decrease the use of technology and dependence on technology. Thus, this proposed project is expected to work for greater good and therefore, can be considered as a high priority project. The project funding is expected to be approved and the project should be implemented as soon as possible. Since this problem is a global phenomenon this type of project should be implemented across the globe. This project will set an example for the rest of world and therefore successful completion of this project is necessary.

Negative Effects of Dependence on Technology

The proposed awareness project aims in highlighting the major issues in front of the participants so that the negative effects of technology in daily life are highlighted. Technology has becomes an inseparable part of people’s life in form of an addiction. Therefore, it is essential to highlight the negative effects of the technology that individuals are exposed to. Loneliness can kill and therefore, it is vital to understand the problems faced by individuals so that the awareness project can be implemented successfully. Loneliness has become a modern day epidemic since increasing dependency in technology is giving rise to a number of problems. The physiologist and the mental experts are increasingly concerned about people’s dependence on technology. People nowadays fail to gain solitude as they are dependent of technology.

Increase sophistication in technology has completely changed that nature of communication. Communicating with total strangers in social media has gradually made them aloof from the real world. Thus, there is a significant need of this awareness project. The ABC charitable organization has been working in similar project for the last five years and therefore has considerable experiences in this field.

Therefore, in order to deal with the issues and mental problems that can arise because of the loneliness, it is essential to understand the reasons behind the same. The ABC charitable organization has taken the responsibility of identifying the source of the problem and to generate awareness among the people to deal with such problems. Prior to the main event, the ABC charitable organization will follow an extensive secondary research so that the major problems can be identified. The

Various researches have shed light on various problems that are faced by individual in information age. There have been cases of suicides as a result of increasing loneliness. Therefore, the problem is needed to be acknowledged. The main purpose of this awareness project is to address the problems that individuals are dealing with. The secondary research that is performed in this field has been a great help in requirements gathering of the program. It has been observed that ABC charitable firm is capable of addressing this problem.

This is a high priority project since the problems faced by the individual has been increasing over the years. The awareness project is necessary as it will lay the foundation to deal with the problems that majority of people across the globe is facing. It is expected that the audience reach of the project will be huge since individuals, mainly the youth has been facing the problems of mental anxiety and loneness as a negative effect of technology.

Another major problem that is faced by the individuals includes increasing use of digital assistance. People tend to talk more with a robot like Alexa than real people. These habits become a major problem in long run. Talking to robots although considered to be a solution to loneliness, the persisting problems can significantly increase with this increasing dependency.  Instead of talking to a robot, individuals should focus on getting help from real friends and family managers.  The awareness project that is proposed, aims in addressing similar problems. The awareness project is expected to generate awareness regarding the need of less usage of digital devices in order to eliminate the mental and health issues that people are facing over  the years. The project is therefore justified.

Loneliness as a Modern-Day Epidemic

Although technology was designated to decrease the loneliness, technology has been largely ineffective in meeting the needs of feeling lonely. As discussed earlier, the increasing loneliness is resulting in lack of solitude as technology has turned out to be an addiction for the individuals specially the youths. Thus, technology is not a fix for loneliness and lack of solitude but a bug that is increasing loneliness in the age of technology.

Technology is rarely simple and therefore accurate understanding of the ill effects of technology is needed to be acknowledged. The ABC charitable organization aims in dealing with the major issues posed by technology. The training aims in providing a group session for understanding the issues associated with the continuous use of technology. Individual or face to face support can be provided as well if needed. Funding from various sources has been asked for the project. Since the project is dealing with a global crisis, the project is marked as a high priority project.

IV. Project Description (Program Narrative)

The scope of the project is to generate awareness among the young adults, youths and family member of children so that the negative effects of increasing dependence on technology in daily life can be reduced. The project will involve identification and analysis of the main causes of loneliness and isolation in the age of technology. The major goals of the project are as follows-

1. To understand the causes of isolation and loneliness in the age of technology
2. To determine the negative effect of prolonged isolation and loneliness
3. To implement awareness training program to educate people about the need for reducing the use of technology and reliance on virtual world.
4. To ensure that the awareness project is a success and has been a helpful project for the a number of individuals

In order to successfully implement the goal number one, an extensive secondary research will be necessary. In order to ensure successful execution of goal 2, it is necessary to undertake both primary and secondary research. The third goal is associated with the successful implementation of the awareness project. The fourth goal relates to an important project aim of ensuring that this particular project is implemented for greater good. This can be achieved by undertaking a primary research. The detailed timeline and budget of the project is discussed in the following sections.

V. Project Timeline/Budget Timeline

The major activities associated with the project are represented as follows-

Activity #1 (Requirements Gathering and Planning)

• Secondary Research about the issue
• Collecting the needed information
• Analyzing the Collected Information
• Documentation of the project needs and Requirements
• End of Phase 1 of Project Execution

Activity #2 (Project Initiation)

• Understanding the negative effects of prolonged use of social media and technology
• Development of a project plan
• Project Scheduling
• Project Budgeting
• Approval of Project Budget
• Approval of Project Plan

Activity #3 (Awareness Project Implementation)

• Sending invitations for the program
• Advertising the program
• Enrolling the Interested Participants
• Implementation of the actual Project
• Collection of Feedback

Activity #4 (Project Closure)

• Project Evaluation
• Primary Research and Collection of Feedbacks
• Analysis of the Feedbacks
• Resource Release
• Project Ends

The detailed schedule of the project is represented in the following table-

The Gantt chart of the project is illustrated in the following picture- 

VI. Budget

The expenses category and the budget of the project is represented in the following table-

The table above represents the estimated budget for this project. The estimated budget might undergo revision during project’s implementation.

Baecker, Ron, et al. “Technology to reduce social isolation and loneliness.” Proceedings of the 16th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers & accessibility. ACM, 2014.

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Casado-Muñoz, Raquel, Fernando Lezcano-Barbero, and María-José Rodríguez-Conde. “Active ageing and access to technology: an evolving empirical study.” Comunicar 23.45 (2015): 37-46.

Harrison, Frederick, and Dennis Lock. Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge, 2017.

Kerzner, Harold, and Harold R. Kerzner. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

Larson, Erik W., et al. Project management: The managerial process. Vol. 6. Grandview Heights, OH: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014.

Leist, A.K., 2013. Social media use of older adults: a mini-review. Gerontology, 59(4), pp.378-384.

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