Kesepian kerap kali dihubungkan dengan peningkatan penggunaan internet, terutama media sosial online. Seiring dengan penggunaan media sosial online yang semakin meluas di berbagai populasi dan kelompok generasi, penelitian ini pun dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk melihat perbedaan tingkat kesepian yang ditinjau dari intensitas penggunaan media sosial online dan kelompok generasinya. Peneliti menggunakan metode suryev online dalam pengambilan data. Analisis data menggunakan uji ANOVA dua jalur yang didasarkan pada pengamatan dua faktor yang menimbulkan variasi. Subjek penelitian ini adalah para pengguna media sosial online dari 3 (tiga) kelompok generasi; generasi baby boomers, generasi X, dan generasi millenials dengan total 246 orang. Variabel kesepian diukur menggunakan UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 yang telah diadaptasi dan menghasilkan reliabilitas sebesar �±=0,916. Hasil uji hipotesis menunjukkan bahwa tidak ada perbedaan signifikan tingkat kesepian yang ditinjau dari intensitas penggunaan media sosial online (p=0,288) namun ada perbedaan signifikan tingkat kesepian pada kelompok generasi, yakni antara kelompok generasi millenials dengan kelompok generasi X (p=0,025).

Loneliness is often associated with the rise of internet usage; online social media in particular. Along with the extended usage of online social media in various population and generational groups, this study is aimed to discover the difference in loneliness based on the intensity of online social media usage and generational groups. This quantitative study used survey method for data collection to 246 online social media users from 3 (three) different generational groups which are (1) baby boomers, (2) gen X, and (3) millenials. The dependent variable was measured using the adaptation of UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 with reliabiliaty score �±=0,916. The data was analyzed using parametrical method two-way ANOVA for it simultaneously tests the effect of each independent variabels on the dependent variable and also identifies any interaction effect. Result shows that the interaction effect between intensity of online social media usage and generational group did not reach statistical significance (F=0.344, p > 0.05). There was also no significant differences of loneliness based on the intensity of online social media usage (p=0.288) but there was a statistically significant main effect for generational groups (p=0.025). Post-hoc comparison using Tukey HSD test indicated that millenials group was significantly different with gen X group (p=0.000), yet the rest of the groups did not differ significantly from either of the other groups.

Kata Kunci : loneliness, social media, baby boomers, gen X, millenials