Loneliness and Cyberloafing in the Time of COVID-19: A Psychological Perspective

Abstract

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected the entire world, has driven countries into economic, social, and political uncertainty and has forced quite significant changes, especially in areas such as health, work, education, and social security. Social changes that are occurring as a result of the crisis include the restructuring of businesses and working styles and the shaping of work life along the new-normal axis. Many psychosocial risks such as conflict management, organisational relationships, communications problems, job satisfaction, stress, productivity, and performance are being redefined as the nature of jobs, job descriptions, employee competence, and ways of working are being recreated for a virtual environment. The importance of concepts related to work psychology such as loneliness, cyberloafing, digital mobbing, emotional resilience, psychological resilience, compassion, self-compassion, conscious awareness, design of habits, coping with loneliness, and coping with crisis is becoming apparent. Research aims The aim of this study is to examine cyberloafing and loneliness with its changing structure in terms of work psychology. In addition, the researchers and their results on cyberloafing and loneliness are discussed in terms of both sociodemographic factors and some variables of work life. Methodology The research method of critical analysis of literature on the subject of cyberloafing and loneliness was applied in this study. Common findings of secondary research were used in terms of work psychology. Findings The concepts of loneliness and cyberloafing, which have been evaluated in relation to different sociodemographic and work-life factors and whose mutual relations have been the subject of a very limited number of studies, are examined more intensively in the context of personal and organisational factors applicable to the technology-intensive future.