Bridging Gaps

A Digital Penpal Experience - Brand Design and Website Creation

Link To Project Page Link to App Walkthrough

My senior thesis project Bridging Gaps was formed by taking a deeper look at what social media and technology can bring to society in terms of connection. I believe that social media and technology can be the connection that brings people together, and in our current socially distanced society, we need all the connections we can get. During my research, I found that 18-25 year olds and 65+ year olds were the two groups that interacted the least. This ended up leading to my research question: “How can social media facilitate new relationships between older adults age 65+ and younger adults 18-25”?

I found that by creating a digital penpal program that connected younger and older adults together, the two groups would benefit from each other immensely. Bridging Gaps created the personal and unique connection that was not available anywhere else. I myself got to experience these connections first hand by interviewing over a dozen incredibly interesting and kind older adults to provide the stories for my project.