Proposing Service Directions to Overcome Social Isolation and to Establish Social Networks Among Socially Isolated Young Adults

Background The number of socially isolated young people in South Korea is increasing every year. As society becomes individualistic, the social network of young people is further weakened, and social disconnection intensifies, leading to various crimes, and raising the seriousness of the social isolation youth problem. To solve this problem, various measures are proposed from the government level to private companies, but they are still immature and have limitations. This study sought more accessible and practical solutions through services that encourage the formation of social networks and help them overcome the social isolation stage by themselves in consideration of the characteristics and psychology of young people in social isolation. Methods Desk research and user surveys were conducted, and in-depth interviews were conducted with various stakeholders such as socially isolated young people, those around them, those involved in the isolated youth support center, and young people who overcome isolation to identify practical needs and pain points. Based on persona and service scenarios, service directions and detailed functions were derived, and future complementary directions were suggested through verification. Results The direction of the service for solving the problem of isolated youth was proposed as follows. First, the service provides personalized challenges so that isolated youth can improve their lifestyle habits themselves and motivates them through a challenge sharing system among service users. Second, the service promotes a sense of belonging and bond with others by encouraging interactions between users in the service with functions such as consumption and chat services and support. Third, accessibility is improved and procedures are simplified through the support project archiving function that collects and shows policies and programs related to socially isolated youth. Conclusions This study presents a support service for overcoming youth isolation by reflecting various stakeholder and user experiences to help solve the disconnection problem of young people in social isolation. The results of this study can be used as basic data for policy and service design to solve the problem of social isolation.