The humane digital design guide discusses how technologies and design choices respond and influence our bodies, and consequences that technology has on culture and society. In addition to the impacts of digital technology on the earth’s ecosystems.
This Humane digital design guide will cover three different sections:
- Design for Bodies (Physical/Mental Health of Individuals)
- Design for Culture (Family, Community, Social Health)
- Design for Earth (Economy, Ecology, Resilience, Regeneration)
Design for bodies explores the impact of how our technology design choices can effect the human body. In addition to how social media platforms is lacking agency and destroying bodies both mentally and physically. Humans are not the ones making these choices it is the adaptive network of humans and machines.
How does bad technology design choices affect our bodies ? Being consistently consumed by social media can take a toll on us mentally and physically. The constant need to compare our selves to our friends or celebrities, being afraid of fomo ( fear of missing out ) and simply being addicted to our devices.
The reason that we are heavily consumed by these technologies is because we are:
- addicted: Individuals no longer have control of trying to stay away from their devices. Also the satisfaction of getting followers and likes plays a huge role, being eager to get attention from the online world.
- Fomo: "Fear of missing out" , constantly wanting to stay in the loop with what is happening around us online
- we want to "feel good": Dopamine is what our brains identifies when we experience temporary emotions from social media. Therefore when dopamine wears off we want regain these emotions by going back on social media.
But addressing how these design choices affect the human body is by exploring the mental and physical aspect that social media has that affect the human body.
Negative effects of technology (physical)
Social media is severely overwhelming and provides a lot of negative effects. Constant use of these technologies can lead to:
1) Eye strain: Technologies, such as tablets, smartphones, and computers, can hold a person’s attention for long periods. This may lead to eyestrain.
- Symptoms of eye strain may include : blurred vision and dry eyes.
- Eye stain can also lead to pain in other parts of the body such as the head, neck, or shoulders.
2) Poor posture: Many technologies promote a “down and forward” user position. Down and forward is when the user has a hunched forward back and looking down at the screen.
- Down and forward causes pressure on the back, neck, and spine. This can lead to arthritis, nerve pain, headaches and more.
3) Reduced physical activity: extended use of technology promotes a sedentary lifestyle.
- Sedentary lifestyle is spending more time sitting or laying down with no exercise for a long period of time.
- Reduced physical activity can cause cardiovascular disease.
- Cardiovascular disease is caused from reduced to no physical activity, which affects the heart or blood vessels.
Negative effects of technology (mental)
Social media platforms are created to bring us back whether it is through targeted ads, notifications, or even the algorithm. As an example instagram will find a way to bring you back, such as: notifications of " see what this user posted " or " this user recently uploaded a story". That is what will make users fear that they are missing out and they will want to go back on social media. Here is an example:
Due to the way that social media was created to be damaging here is some of the issues that social media is causing:
1) Depression and anxiety: Social media use can affect overall well-being. If a person uses it excessively, they become so dependent on social media and try to compare their lives to everyone else's on the internet. Not only that but people become exposed to cyberbullying. Here is also some examples of how some apps are promoting this:
- Instagram: "like" button, a large number of the people are worrying about likes. The like button was designed with the intent of you liked someones work or picture, but there are a number of people who are under the assumption that the more likes you get the more popular you are. Which makes users want more and more likes. That eventually leads to posting more in order to have more likes than someone else, and when they don't get that it makes them furious.
- Snapchat: "Filters" which is also known as snapchat dysmorphia. Snapchat created beauty filters to make people look heavily edited which leads to snapchat dysmorphia. What snapchat dysmorphia its a body-image disorder which eventually leads to individuals feeling the need to get surgery to look exactly like the filter.Having these filters is worrying a lot of people and making them depressed and anxious because the want to look a certain way but they can't.
The intention behind why likes or filters were created is very obvious. However I do believe that it ties along nicely with how users are becoming depressed and anxious, is because these platforms are creating tools to make us feel a certain way. As well as these tools don't only make us feel a certain way but the get you to come back and use the app, either to check your likes or see if you can find another filter that will make you look good. This is very damaging because it leads to a lot of insecurities and mental health issues.
2) Isolation: Having constant access to technology, specifically smartphones, can prevent us from making personal connections.
- Experts confirmed that increased use of social media can cause emotional harm. A 2017 study by American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that heavy “social media users were three times more likely to feel socially isolated than casual users”.
There is a lot of solutions when it comes to trying to reduces the negative effects of technology, but are these solutions efficient enough to minimize the effects ? We want to provide solutions that are more ethical in order to create a healthier design for bodies.
Here are some design solutions and their problems:
- Minimizing the use of social media: A lot of people do not have the tendency to stay away from their phones. It is very easy to say that you will minimize the use of social media. The fear of missing out (FOMO) which makes people eager to use social media more, to keep up with what's happening in their circle. We also must remember that social media algorithms bring us back all the time. You may not see this or realize this until you look closely and realize that apps like instagram will find a way to bring you back, such as: notifications of " see what this user posted " or " this user recently uploaded a story". That is what will make users fear that they are missing out and they will want to go back on social media.
- Set up screen time: screen time allows you to set limits for your apps and communication and using that could help you stay away from these distractions. However:
- Not everyone can commit to screen time, and it can be turned off very easily
- Make room for in-person conversations: meeting with a friend or doing in real life activities that include commutating in real life
- Social interaction is a common problem since face-to-face social interactions tend to be difficult towards addicted social media users. Many prefer to text or talk on social media opposed to talking in-person.
The takeaway here is that the issue is not really with the human it self, yes a part of the problem also comes from how these technologies are designed to bring us back. Our brains are made to think that we are starting to become addicted to these platforms, but the algorithm is designed to get our attention.
This video talks about how the algorithms work in social networks, algorithms typically work with user data in order to find videos,posts,or news to bring to an individuals feed. This is a great link to how users don't know where to draw the line when it comes to minimizing the use of social media.
How to use screen time/ app limit for android
Design for culture is going to explore the look at some cultural consequences of our tech, Technology is now needed everywhere whether it is at home, work, or school. Individuals will often find that they are required to use laptops to do homework, work or answer emails. While this is becoming the new norm we now get so used to being connected to our phones that we forget to connect with the people around us. In addition to the lack of transparency that certain companies / AI technologies are presenting to users, and how that could affect our privacy and safety, as well as discuss some racism issues in technology.
How Technologies are affecting families ?
Tech has now become a huge part of our lives, we spend so much time on our phones that we forget whats happening around us. It is very common to have phones on the table rather than checking on the well-being of those around us. Families are affected by this since their children are so busy being consumed by what their friends and celebrities doing online, keeping up with snapchat streaks or checking who liked their picture. But how and why is that affecting children in specific?
How technology is affecting children?
As more children are using more social media, across a wide range of platforms and technologies. The changes in technology have presented a host of new challenges for parents and kids. These technologies also promote behavioral patterns that can be self-revealing before self-reflecting, that can cause serious consequences for children.
- Lower attention span: Just a click away ! everything becomes available to them with just one click. Being used to having everything available to you makes it very difficult to wait, since these technologies move fast and don't force you to wait. Youtube is a very good example of displaying videos that you similar to any video you watched in the past. That is not only using a users data but it knows how to bring back children to youtube.
- Low academic performance: increasing the use of technology means less time spent on homework and studying which results in lower grades.
- Increased risk and lack of privacy: The increase of theft, privacy issues, and harassment, has become very common. Many children are too young to realize how the buttons they are clicking on might harm them.
Problems that arise from solutions
Parents present solutions among their children but do not realize that some of these solutions come with some issues.
- Take their technologies away: It is very common to take children's technology away. However a lot of children will rage when they have their technologies away, how is such a reaction from children will help them use their technologies less? Taking their technologies away and not giving them something to do in return is not ethical, there is nothing distracting them from their phones/tablets.
- Still set screen time limits to balance online and offline activities: Setting up screen time is something that kids can also turn off unless a password is present. In addition to that increasing offline activities will help, expect that we forget that many children invest so much of their time on these technologies, that it becomes very difficult for them to socialize in real life.
Design solutions: to help minimize the use of technology with children
This video from The Atlantic addresses the fear that parents have around social media. However Ana Homayoun talks about what kids are going through when it comes to technology and social media use. The video also highlights how parents can become more open to helping kids in an objective way that protects them from some of the detrimental and dangerous things that may happen online or in real life.
Here are some of the solutions presented in the video
- creating opportunities for daily and weekly digital detox: A lot of children seem to be thankful for having their phones taken away before bed-time, meaning they are not available to be on social media. But I also believe weekly detox also allows children to explore their hobbies and skills that they might enjoy when they are not consumed by technology.
- Download these apps and learn how to use them: Developing awareness by learning what apps your kids are using. By being aware what apps children are using it helps parents see what their children are looking at and trying to identify if these apps are safe to use.
Here is solutions I would prefer:
- social media detox as a family: Everyone getting off of social media for a while maybe helps with trying to create a less tailored version of your feed. That also helps from having social networks constantly look at users data and trying to identify certain patterns. Social networks do not really care about how much damage it might cost you but rather find things to put on your feed to manipulate you. Getting off of social media will only make you feel better but also confuse the algorithm since it will not know what to find to bring to your feed, since you have not used it in a long time.
- Find apps that have safe content or can be tailored by the user : Since instagram,tiktok or twitter are creating algorithms that bring us back to social media, what if some apps can let the user have some agency in deciding how much they want to see and what they want to see. That is already a thing muting words on twitter will not show you any tweets who bring up a certain word you choose not to see on your feed. Instagram has a "not interested" feature for some posts and tiktok has the same feature. While that does not solve any of the physical issues social media brings, that option is a great start to creating a healthy environment on social media.
Propaganda and Fake News
Social networks have to exist as a platform for spreading propaganda. With people spending more time on these sites the importance of spreading fake is essential. However posting propaganda and turning it into something that the targeted audience can consume. Algorithms try to feed us targeted news to manipulate people’s perceptions of reality and influence politics. This is done to stir up and intensify social conflict.
Racism in technology:
Here is some examples of racism in technology:
- A research conducted by NIST the National Institute of Standards and Technology has confirmed these studies, because face recognition technologies across 189 algorithms are least accurate on women of color.
- Face recognition algorithms: uses a software to identify people by matching images, in a surveillance video or unlocking your iphone, or Biometric security systems. Research by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown that some facial analysis algorithms misidentify people of color
- Film emulsion technology: "Emulsion is a light-sensitive material which is used to coat film and photographic paper so that images can be made to appear." Photographs were developed based on the tones and colors in an image, that means that many photographers were unable to capture darker skin tones in images.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
The amount of data companies are collecting is not transparent. A lot of smart home devices listen to private conversations, companies also collect online behaviors such as: (likes, dislikes, searches, social networks, purchases). This is done to produce data for commercial purposes, "it’s often done without us understanding the full extent of the surveillance".
"Surveillance capitalism describes a market driven process where the commodity for sale is your personal data, and the capture and production of this data relies on mass surveillance of the internet" - The conversation
The Relation between AI and surveillance capitalism
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism book by Shoshana Zuboff’s demonstrates that AI-driven by technology. “accumulates vast domains of new knowledge from us, not for us”. The book also demonstrates how tech can predict our futures and manipulate us into directions they decide. In conclusion these technologies are doing these things to full-fill there needs without our permission
With surveillance capitalism in place, the exploitation humans has become very ease. This is how AI is linked to that since what AI technologies are doing is monitoring and manipulating.
How do I protect my online privacy from 'surveillance capitalism?
Limit what you give away by blocking tracking cookies. However you can still be tracked by: web beacons (used by third parties to monitor the activity of users at a website), browser fingerprinting (information collected about a remote computing device for the purpose of identification) and behavioral data (mouse movements, pauses and clicks, or sweeps and taps)
How are we being tracked ? HTTP cookies or cookies, is how you interact with a specific website, it remembers every single click,prefence,or save.
Why is the internet tracking our data ? The simple answer you would get is to enhance user experience and we all know that is not the full truth. A lot of our data is being sold to advertising companies to target you with relevant products.
Design for earth focuses on the impacts of digital technology on the earth’s ecosystems. There is a lot that can come into consideration here, but more specifically this section will discuss how the disposal of e-waste is effecting communities,economies and the planet.
The story of stuff starts off by taking about how a lot of products and “designed for the dump” which means they are designed to be thrown away quickly, It also talks about how “stuff” stuff moves from extraction to production, distribution, consumption to disposal which is know as the material economy. A brief summary of what the material economy is:
- Extraction:natural resource exploitation ( a.k.a trashing the planet ) , cutting down trees ,blowing up mountains for metal.
- Production: we use energy to to mix toxic chemicals in with the natural resources to make toxic contaminated products.
- Distribution:selling everything all toxic contaminated junk as quickly as possible by keeping the price down and keep inventory moving. The price is kept low by not paying the workers.
- Consumption: Keep the materials flowing
- Disposal: dumping in landfill/ incineration: burning the garbage which releases toxins (that pollute air , land ,water and change the climate)
How is the material economy affecting us ?
- This system is wasting a lot of resources, and selling toxic contaminated junk as quickly as possible.
- We are also exploiting natural resources, which is trashing our planet. This is concerning because trashing our planet mades recycling inadequate.
- The materials economy system is also made to do things to keep the system going in a loop some of them being:
- Planned obsolescence: designed for the dumb, they make stuff to become useless as quickly as possible.
- Perceived obsolescence: Driven by media and ads that convince us to throw away stuff that still is in good condition.
This is affecting our society because as explained above, we are harming our planet by producing endless amount of products. In addition to that there are people who are not being paid in order to "externalize costs". People have to suffer by working with toxins, not being paid well, and not providing them with health insurance. These are the people who are being harmed with our earth, all of this for the pleasure of big cooperations at the cost of peoples safety. Eventually the materials economy system leads to e-waste.
THE ISSUES WITH E-WASTE
Why and how is e-waste a rising concern to our planet ?
- How? As more devices become more affordable and the replacement cycle is shorter more. So a lot of our electronics pile up, so we tend to throw them away.
- Why? E-waste happens because objects are no longer useful to us so we throw them away. It also happens because we design them to be very difficult to take them apart, extract useful materials and reuse them.
Are these design solutions ethical or unethical ?
These solutions are unethical because technologies are purposefully designed for the dump, the life span of any technology is meant to last until a new technology is released. For example Apple's iphones. Once a new phone is released any older versions will start to bug, but others will keep it because it "still works". A lot of older versions of iphone's will not operate on any recent iOS versions, which will make you want to buy a new phone.
Using videos to fix your phone: Removes any warranty added to your device, also not everyone can afford to buy certain pieces to fix their phone.
Solutions that are ethical and that can help minimize e-waste
- create phones that have modular/swappable pieces : Is a solution that I would present which I believe would help minimize e-waste.Having to swap out certain parts in our devices will increase the life span of our devices. Which means that we are moving away from planned obsolesces and the idea of designing for the dump.
- Donating old devices: Donating to recycling centers is the best ethical design solution, since we are giving them to people who know how to recycle e-waste safely without harming anyone.
What are big tech companies doing in order to reduce e-waste ?
- Dell: the materials it uses will be "recycled or renewable" by 2030.
- Apple: its newest iPhones would be produced using completely recycled rare earth materials.
- Google: 100% of products it launches will include recycled materials beyond just plastics.
- Microsoft: plans to increase its use of recycled aluminum and make its Surface devices 100% recyclable by 2030.
Maha | NMD 200 | Jon Ippolito
Works Cited
- https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health
- https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/aug/21/online-safety-children-technology-parents
- https://www.wgu.edu/blog/impact-technology-kids-today-tomorrow1910.html#close
- https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/thenow/is-technology-making-us-lonely/1/
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160302121325.htm
- https://www.vogue.in/wellness/content/how-i-trained-myself-to-spend-less-time-on-social-media
- https://firstthings.org/how-technology-affects-families/
- https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-surveillance-capitalism-and-how-does-it-shape-our-economy-119158
- https://www.datadriveninvestor.com/2020/03/04/on-artificial-intelligence-and-surveillance-capitalism/
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/askjack/2019/dec/05/how-do-i-protect-my-online-privacy-from-surveillance-capitalism
- https://fortune.com/2021/06/21/big-tech-companies-e-waste-smartphones-wearables-tvs-electric-vehicles-laptops-flashlights-tablets/
- https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/family-tech/tech-effects-on-family/5-ways-technology-has-negatively-affected-families.htm
- https://techxplore.com/news/2021-03-big-tech-tackle-e-waste-crisis.html
- https://www.rts.com/blog/the-complete-e-waste-recycling-process/