Team Quasar!

During these unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic times, we were forced in a stage of isolation. This unusual stage of self isolation has significantly altered lives and reality.

Adolescents are experiencing an unusual prolonged state of not only physical but also mental isolation from their peers, teachers and extended community networks. This has not only 'normalized' isolation but eventually leading to a stunted growth of their social networks. Also, introduced self isolation as a primary coping mechanism when faced with cognitive dissonance.

We head back to work, feeling new. Feeling like somehow over the course of the last one and a half year, we have somehow seen the worst and bettered ourselves.

Introducing Mibby - Mibby is a Computerized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy app that attempts to help self isolating adolescents get out of their comfort zones one step at a time.

It does this primarily by giving the user a virtual pet to care about and taking the user on small treasure hunts, where they uncover anonymous messages from their peers, words of hope, of empathy, words that will emulate familiarity in a foreign space.

Target group : College going students that are living together around or within a campus.

Work flow highlights :

1) Choose a companion -

A virtual companion that will be with the user throughout the journey.

2) Seeds of hope -

Once onboard, Mibby will help you with prompts that lead you to specific pit-stops. These locations are where people have left their messages/stories.

3) Pet Interaction Sniff -

This virtual pet would trigger haptic feed on interactions a every pit-stop.

4) Collect the seed -

At every pit-stop, the user will have have to collect seeds and save it. These seeds work as "rewards" for collection. Here, the user will have a choice of meeting the gardener.

5) Meet the gardener -

Have a look at our miro board!👀

We have accomplished our stakeholders, target audiences and had a wholesome conversation with them on what was their take on self-isolation. It was endearing!

Update so far, we've busied ourselves diving deep into literature for the issues that surround the habits of self-isolation, amongst adolescents to be precise. In case you want to have a deeper look just like we did, please have a go at the reading list below!

- Social isolation in Covid-19: The impact of loneliness Debanjan Banerjee, Mayank Rai https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0020764020922269

- Technology Delivered Interventions for Depression and Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-018-0271-8

- Computerised Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for depressed Adolescents. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/71036917/Smith_etal_2015_C_CBT_for_Depressed_Adolescents_BRAT_73_104_110.pdf

- Rapid Systematic Review: The Impact of Social Isolation and Loneliness on the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the Context of COVID-19 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7267797/

-Maximizing Exposure Therapy: An Inhibitory Learning Approach Michelle G. Craske, Michael Treanor, Chris Conway, Tomislav Zbozinek, and Bram Vervliet. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114726/?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000618

-The behavioral challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic: indirect measurements and personalized attitude changing treatments (IMPACT) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7481714/

-https://www.healthline.com/health-news/after-a-year-of-isolation-social-interaction-may-cause-anxiety#Why-you-may-feel-anxious-about-returning-to-normal

- https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-to-deal-with-social-anxiety-after-a-year-of-social-distancing/

- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/social-anxiety-and-covid-19

- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/role-cognitive-dissonance-pandemic/614074/

(Dhruv speaks to a research subject)

Please keep your Sound on Primary research can happen at any time of the day.

'they say, "where there is a will, there is a way." Who's Will? What way?' Slowly and steadily, there appears a direction worth exploring in self-isolation. a behavior held sacred at the peak of covid, which is now a coping mechanism instilled in many. Maybe a brief will come by briefly...

Patterns begin to emerge. There are a lot of new behaviors that the pandemic brought to us. Some were inescapable, some were welcomed, and some are here to stay.

The Team

Shreeya, our leading lady, is our in-house Basanti, she's as good with her solution-oriented thinking as she is with her dancing skills (which are great by the way).

Dhruv is our resident content dada. His wit; or the lack there off; has claimed the lives of many people. He. laughs at his own jokes often is the only one laughing.