End Loneliness

CHALLENGE

End Loneliness

$1 MILLION (Prize amount to be confirmed. Announcement expected for next year)

Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social pain—a psychological mechanism which motivates individuals to seek social connections. It is often associated with an unwanted lack of connection and intimacy. Loneliness overlaps and yet is distinct from solitude. Solitude is simply the state of being apart from others; not everyone who experiences solitude feels lonely. As a subjective emotion, loneliness can be felt even when surrounded by other people; one who feels lonely, is lonely. The causes of loneliness are varied. They include social, mental, emotional, and environmental factors.

Recent data reports that in the US, considered the most advanced country in the world, almost three quarters of its population experience loneliness.

Chronic loneliness is already known for being modern day epidemic many tims leding to suicide. Social interactions and happiness have been proven to be related with life extension and loneliness is a serious risk factor for humn health and human longevity.

END HOMELESSNESS

The solution can include:

Strategies, activities, instruments , therapies must be developed to end loneliness as a negative feeling affecting our life.

This competition calls for innovative ideas and concepts that could somehow eliminate or reduce loneliness as a negative feeling with bad consequences. Several totally diferente alternatives csn be proposed considering their impacto n the final goal.

Proposal:

This is a single phase competition: written proposals, (max 30 pages including images) about the technologies and systems that would be proposed.

Five finalist teams will be selected that would proceed to phase 2 in case of the need for prototypes and experiments not foreseeable at the moment.