eSports Beating Loneliness

In 2018, Australian Red Cross launched #BeatLoneliness with Thinkerbell at GG EZ Bar, Australia’s first ever e-sports bar. It was the perfect venue for our launch, as it takes a traditional concept and flips it, responding to our emerging digital lives.

More and more technology is reaching into all spheres of our lives at home, work, where we shop, where we look for information and increasingly where we build our networks and community. As this dynamic interaction of face-to-face and digital connection continues to emerge we need to understand what this means for how we connect and how we make sense of our relationships and our social network. At Red Cross, we’re exploring technology as a way to understand connection, and to find new and more effective ways to tackle humanitarian issues. #BeatLoneliness is the beginning of that exploration.

Research consistently shows that loneliness is increasing around many parts of the world and is touted as being the next emerging health epidemic, with overwhelming evidence suggesting that loneliness increases the risk of early death more than physical inactivity and obesity and is comparable to smoking and drinking alcohol[1].

Loneliness is a feeling or an experience, which is when our social network, our relationships or connections are not meeting our expectations and needs. In an era of immersive digital connection and changing expectations of relationships and how we participate in community life, it’s not surprising that the way we connect is becoming more complicated. The lines between face-to-face and digital relationships are changing and our networks are increasingly built on loose social connections — which can mean that we are more ‘connected’, yet lonelier than ever before[2].

Loneliness is something that everyone can relate to, with more than half of Australians experiencing loneliness at some point in their lives[3]. Research also shows that loneliness does not discriminate, being experienced across age groups, gender, cultural groups and socioeconomic groups. Interestingly though, loneliness peaks during early adulthood and almost half of our experiences of loneliness are caused by ‘triggers’ like moving house, changing schools or a job or a relationship breakdown. These are situations that often remove those easy, everyday social interactions that help us to feel supported and connected.

We will all probably experience one or many of these ‘triggers’ throughout our life, and for most of us, we experience this as a signal to take action. There are times, however, when doing something about it is not always easy or possible, and equally when these triggers are significantly disruptive or clustered together. Just like thirst is the signal that we need to drink water, loneliness is our body telling us we need to reach out and connect. And these connections can come in all shapes and sizes, and of course in diverse spaces and places — even esports environments like Rocket League.

The launch of #BeatLoneliness is the first step in a broader piece of work underway by Red Cross, exploring the longer term change required to solve loneliness together. #BeatLoneliness is about the overlap of face-to-face and digital connections, recognising that both play a role in our increasingly digital lives, and we need to understand our overarching network of social connections, how satisfied we are with the whole network picture and how we can put more in to the relationships/networks/teams we already have.

Through #BeatLoneliness we are bringing the issue of loneliness out into the open and on to the front of our sports jerseys (literally). We want to bring the conversation of loneliness into spaces we are already connecting and make it a problem we can solve together. #BeatLoneliness is about building on your social network, to call out who we can rely on in our networks and importantly, who can rely on us.

As part of #BeatLoneliness we are asking teams — virtual and on field — to change their names to Loneliness. The first 200 teams will receive free jerseys to wear ‘Loneliness’ on their chests and they can join our growing pack to be the team to beat.

So…If you’re involved in any team or group activity, whether it’s lunch-time soccer, trivia night, extreme trail running, cricket, marbles, netball or Rocket League — sign-up your team: www.beatloneliness.com.au.

We want you to join the pack, spread the word and be the team to beat!

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/upshot/how-social-isolation-is-killing-us.html?_r=0

Lifeline Survey 2016 https://www.lifeline.org.au/about-lifeline/media-centre/media-releases/2016-articles/8-out-of-10-australians-say-loneliness-is-increasing

Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB (2010) Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Med7(7): e1000316. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316

[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/well/mind/how-loneliness-affects-our-health.html?_r=0

[3]Lifeline Survey 2016 https://www.lifeline.org.au/about-lifeline/media-centre/media-releases/2016-articles/8-out-of-10-australians-say-loneliness-is-increasing