Feeling lonely in the online crowd
What TikTok tells us about young people and loneliness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22944852 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bethan Harries (0000-0003-1668-8391, Faculty of Public Health & Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT), Marco Zenone (0000-0003-4201-6070, University of British Columbia), Greg Hartwell (0000-0001-9153-7126, Faculty of Public Health & Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health Promotion International (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0957-4824 • E-ISSN: 1460-2245 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/heapro/daaf094 |
| PMID | 40621771 |
| OpenAlex | W4412093171 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 24 |
Loneliness is a pressing public health issue, with young people particularly affected. Given the widespread use of TikTok among younger demographics, the platform plays an influential role in shaping perceptions of health topics. This study examines the self-perceived causes and experiences of loneliness expressed by TikTok users. We built a dataset of the most popular, publicly available English-language TikTok videos globally that used the hashtag #lonely and performed a qualitative content analysis to assess (i) video tone, (ii) self-expressed identities related to loneliness, (iii) unmet desires expressed as the cause of loneliness, (iii) absences expressed as the cause of loneliness, and (v) changes in life circumstance as the cause of loneliness. The included videos (n = 184) generated over 687 million views. Absence (69.6%) was the prevailing theme of self-perceived causes of loneliness. This absence was mostly attributed to a lack of quality in a person’s relationships (33.7%) or having no relationship (32.1%). Mental health (26.1%) was the most cited expression of identity related to the experience of loneliness. The overall sentiment of the videos was negative (83.2%). No videos were made by healthcare professionals or healthcare organizations offering health information or support. TikTok is an accessible, underutilized, and valuable data resource to understand the public portrayal and sentiment of pressing health topics in young people. Results reveal a prevalence of negatively toned videos, primarily expressing absence as a root cause of loneliness.
Feeling · Health care · Loneliness · Mental health · Political science · Psychiatry · Public health · Aging and Gerontology Research · Health disparities and outcomes · Media Influence and Health · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Social Psychology
The experience of loneliness among young people with depression
Loneliness as a predictor of suicidal ideation and behaviour
Functions of Loneliness, Social Support, Health Behaviors, and Stress in Association With Poor Health
Smartphones, social media use and youth mental health
Age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorder indicators and suicide-related outcomes in a nationally representative dataset, 2005–2017.
Social Relationships and Mortality Risk
On the Psychology of TikTok Use
TikTok and public health
Research on Adolescents Regarding the Indirect Effect of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress between TikTok Use Disorder and Memory Loss
Developing a New Conceptual Framework of Meaningful Interaction for Understanding Social Isolation and Loneliness
Liquid Surveillance
On the relation between message sentiment and its virality on social media
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |