How do we design technology to benefit a persons physical and mental health?

ACKNOWLEDGE

Whether you have already created technology or not, acknowledging and understanding what it is about different aspects of social media and design that affects peoples mental health is crucial to creating to HUMANE technology.

A higher use of social media makes people three times more likely to have perceived social isolation. Constantly thinking about what everybody else is doing, thinking, or saying, and or reacting to that and creating opportunities for yourself to communicate with people just though social media is found severely overwhelming and normally provides negative effects. Even though some feel comfort is communicating through our phones, and social media, we then find ourselves anxious when needing to communicate in the real world. Platforms have made it so easy to get personal with strangers. These apps have created a space for those to post images of themselves. Although some find it fun, others catch themselves wanting to be other people. Wishing they looked like other people, and then trying to be other people.

So, what do we do? As a digital designer it's important to put yourself in the shoes of young teenager. Acknowledge all the negative affects and create technology that supports equality. That supports self love, and public safety. Create opportunities for people to create real world connections, and gain a support system. Build trust. Take away likes. Take away numbers, because there is no need to compare individuality. Take away notifications, and increase privacy and security.

Platforms like instagram and tiktok have built their apps with the intention of consuming as much time of their target audience as possible. With kids as young at 10 years using social media, they have a difficult time finding out what they like when it's almost a known fact on what is trending and what is seen as popular and cool. Kids are looking at these famous social media users and thinking, "Oh, that looks cool, I'm going to do that" or "Thats what I want to do," and, "I want to be just like her." Although it's super normal to share identities, we aren't giving kids and teenagers the head space and time they need to create their individuality without the influence of someone they don't even know.

So, how do we decrease technology addiction? Moderation. In balance, we find healthy living. Like everything, using technology in moderation can help with managing negative impacts. For instance, avoiding screen time at least 30 minutes before bed can reduce the poor effects it has on sleep. And reducing social media use to 30 minutes a day significantly reduces the most common mental health difficulties.

How do we design technology that integrates culture and benefits communities and families?

As mentioned above, technology can drastically affect our mental and physical health. Social media platforms have set an unrealistic standard, especially for teenagers and kids that are growing up using these services. Technology can not only affect ourselves, but it can also affect our relationships with others. Communities and even families can be negatively affected by social media and technology use.

Technology platforms have a lot of benefits for communities around the world. They help us communicate from anywhere, collaborate with others and create amazing things that can be displayed around the world. We are starting to implement technology more and more in the workforce, schools, university's and even politics. Although this can be a good thing, it can also be used in harmful ways.

In middle schools and high schools around the world, kids are being given tools like laptops and iPads to use inside and outside of the classroom. These tools can be very helpful, but can also be very distracting. If the iPads and laptops don't have restrictions, they can pose as a huge distraction to young kids and young adults. During class, kids can play games or text one another in the classroom instead of focusing on work. These distractions are hard for teachers to monitor and make it hard for students to be fully engaged in the classroom. An obvious solution to this, limit what kids can and cannot download onto these devices. Monitor what kids are using them for in the classroom and make sure kids struggling with these distractions are staying on track with the material.

Now that we covered how technology can affect a school setting, we can cover how it affects a workplace setting. There are so many benefits to technology in companies that it's hard to overlook them for the negatives. Technology allows us to work from home, collaborate, raises productivity and satisfaction and can give us the ability to better serve our customers and employees. With all these great things it can offer, the negatives are often very overlooked. Technology can be very threatening to businesses that have a lot of information and money online. Cyber security has become a new issue that companies now have to worry about. To combat this, companies have to be aware of these threats and make sure their databases and passwords are safe and heavily protected. Technology can also raise loneliness in employees that work from home frequently or even full time. Its important to give these employees resources to reach out to their other co workers and maintain positive relationships, even if most of their communications are online.

How do we design sustainable technology?

The digitalization of the modern world doesn't just pose risks to people but also to the planet. The planet is in a climate crisis and the transition we're making to more digitalization is a direct contributor. A research team at the UMass Amherst found that the field that helps virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri understand what your saying and respond emits up to 626,155lb of carbon dioxide, about the same amount emmited by flying round trip between New York and Bejing 125 times.

"Digitization is a climate disaster: if corporations and governments succeed in making vastly more of our world into data, there will be less of a world left for us to live in"

The goal of designing sustainable technology is to drastically reduce environmental and ecological risks and to create a sustainable product.

Two main ways to use more sustainable technology is to switch to renewable energy sources and by making less data.