"It's About Missing Much More Than the People": How Students use Digital Technologies to Alleviate Homesickness

Title of the Paper

“It’s About Missing Much More Than the People”: How Students Use Digital Technologies to Alleviate Homesickness

Paper Information

• Subject Area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Student Mental Health
• Keywords: Homesickness, Student Mental Health, Digital Technologies, Social Support, Emotional Regulation, International Students, Video Communication, Virtual Co-presence, Digital Ecosystems

Research Background and Problem

• Problem and Challenges: Living away from home can lead to psychological discomfort and feelings of homesickness among university students. Homesickness has been proven to contribute to depression, anxiety, and difficulties in adaptation, which may further impact academic performance or lead to school dropout.
• Importance: Homesickness is a common phenomenon as students independently adapt to university life, but its impact on academic and mental health should not be underestimated. Existing psychological interventions are insufficient to fully address this issue. With the widespread adoption of technology, exploring the potential of digital technologies to alleviate homesickness is of significant importance.
• Research Motivation: To investigate the specific ways students use digital technologies to mitigate homesickness, while identifying barriers to technology use and directions for improvement.

Solution

• Research Methodology: Through qualitative research, including semi-structured interviews and event-based logging methods, the study surveyed 50 students from Australian universities to explore how they use digital technologies in response to homesickness.
• Innovative Contribution: This study expands the understanding of university students’ use of digital technologies, highlighting the relationship between technology and homesickness, and exploring possibilities for designing more effective technologies to support the mental health of international students.
• Key Technologies and Implementation Steps:
  • Using online questionnaires to collect data on the types and frequency of digital technologies used by students.
  • Conducting interviews to uncover students’ behaviors and strategies when facing homesickness.
  • Using logs to record dynamic changes in technology usage behaviors, addressing the limitations of recall-based interviews.

Research Findings

• Key Discoveries:
  1. Technology Functions: Digital technologies help students alleviate homesickness in six ways, including accessing social connections, seeking support, reconstructing a sense of “home” through virtual co-presence, connecting with culture and food, experiencing hometown places, and emotional regulation.
  2. Negative Aspects of Technology: Certain technologies may exacerbate homesickness. For example, video chatting can lead to emotional exposure and intense feelings of loss after farewells, while social media may trigger memories and anxiety associated with homesickness.
  3. Students’ Own Strategies: To avoid the negative psychological impacts of technology, students actively manage their technology use (e.g., controlling the frequency of calls with family or blocking content that triggers emotions).
• Limitations of Technology and Future Directions:
  • Current technologies lack support for broader aspects of family life (e.g., food, pets).
  • Virtual co-presence technologies need improvement, such as more immersive virtual reality and cross-media social tools.
  • Suggestions include integrating virtual spaces and sensory stimuli (e.g., touch or taste) to provide a more authentic home experience.
• Experimental Evaluation: Analyzed participants’ experiences and behavioral changes in technology use, revealing the dynamic characteristics of homesickness.
• Future Directions:
  • Develop technologies that reduce the psychological sense of distance, such as enhanced virtual home experiences.
  • Design more control options for social media and communication technologies that trigger homesickness.
  • Explore how technology can help students adapt to new environments, including fostering integration with local culture.

Conclusion

This study not only reveals the diverse technological strategies students employ to cope with homesickness but also highlights the shortcomings of current technologies in addressing this emotional challenge. By designing more immersive and integrative technologies, it may be possible to better alleviate students’ longing for home and support their mental health and academic success. The findings provide important references for designing technological interventions and advance exploration in the fields of HCI and student mental health.