Designing and evaluating affective aspects of sociable media to support social connectedness

The use of sociable media for supporting social connectedness has been a serious subject of study for researchers and designers in recent years. Social connectedness is considered to be the momentary experience of belongingness and relatedness with others. Particular user groups may benefit from support in social connectedness, such as elderly or divorced parents and their children. Several research projects have made efforts to support social connectedness. However, there have been few formal studies into the factors affecting connectedness. Also, the way in which social connectedness has been measured in studies to date is diverse and often not grounded in psychological theory. This shows a need for more elaborate investigation in how social connectedness can be measured, what types of content could be shared between users, and which interactions should be provided by a system, when aiming for social connectedness. This should lead to guidelines and an ontology of elements to help and inspire designers of social connectedness systems.