Smart Technologies, Loneliness and Young Adults: Towards an Updated Understanding of the People-Place Relationship in Urban Open Space

Abstract

With the rise of smart cities, increasing technologies have been introduced in the cities’ public realm and are intertwined with our social life. Although technology enables our cities to be smarter places, it is nevertheless a double-edged sword that may reinforce urban dwellers’ loneliness. Loneliness is a personal feeling, but it also has become a widespread social phenomenon that might have been affected by the built environment. This research asks how smart technologies in public open spaces impact people-place relationships and perceptions of loneliness. This study contributes to the theoretical discussion on public space planning and public social life in the smart city era, with special attention given to young city dwellers.

A case study framework and qualitative methods are used in this study. It investigates three smart technology case studies in public open spaces: smart furniture, a smart device and a smart festival as case studies. The three case studies represent three modalities of smartness mediated in the public realm and are likely to lead to various scales of social interactions. Through unpacking 41 in-depth interviews of young adult users, technology designers, and academic experts in urban and loneliness fields, the study sheds light on how public spaces’ form and social function and people-place relationships are altered by smart technologies. The study also offers nuanced insight into contemporary public spaces as a social resource, young adults’ public social life in real and virtual spaces, and links between smart technology use and young adults’ loneliness.