From loneliness to extremism: an existential phenomenological analysis of social isolation in adolescence

Abstract

Introduction: Social media has transformed adolescent interactions, fostering the creation of virtual personas that meet the need for belonging but also pose challenges such as isolation and online harassment. Adolescence, characterized by group tendencies, intensifies the search for identity and self-transcendence, as per Frankl’s logotherapy. Objective: To analyze how social media impacts adolescent sociability, considering existential emptiness and radicalization. Methodology: A literature review based on works by Frankl, Freud, and others, alongside 18 articles from repositories like SciELO and PePSIC, and journalistic sources, structured around three axes: technology and communication, the pandemic, and radicalization. Results: Social media promotes controlled sociability but fosters I-It relationships, isolation, and extremism, amplified by the pandemic. The group tendency, linked to existential emptiness, increases susceptibility to radicalization. Conclusion: Social media intensifies isolation and the risk of mass neuroses, necessitating the promotion of responsibility and existential meaning to mitigate radicalization.