List: iPhone, Snapchat, Instagram
Ledger of Harms Problems:
iPhone – The presence of a smartphone, even when off, can reduce cognitive capacity by taxing the attentional resources that reside at the core of both working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. Even the mere presence of a smartphone can disrupt the connection between two people, having negative effects on closeness, connection, and conversation quality. Our phones are definitely the best and worst thing since sliced bread to my generation. For example, 78% of teens check their devices at least hourly, and 50% report feeling “addicted” to their phones; meanwhile, 69% of parents check their devices at least hourly, and 27% of parents feel “addicted”. The last thing that I found interesting about iPhone usage in the Ledger or Harms is that many modern Silicon Valley parents strongly restrict technology use at home, and some of the area’s top schools minimize tech in the classroom. In the words of one 44-year-old parent who used to work at Google, “We know at some point they will need to get their own phones, but we are prolonging it as long as possible.”
Snapchat & Instagram – 44% of teens agree at least “somewhat” that using social media often distracts them from people they’re with in person, and 34% agree either strongly or somewhat that using social media takes away from time they could be spending with people face-to-face. Social Media affects the political views of its users by altering search results that can shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20% or more, with virtually no one aware they are being manipulated. These social media networks are affecting such a large portion of teens today. 86% of over 2,200 teachers said the number of students with social challenges has increased in the 3-5 years before 2015; 90% said they saw increased emotional challenges, and 77% cognitive challenges
Humane Design Guide & Redesign Evaluation:
I was gonna consider everything on the list separately in this section but since the social media apps are primarily used in the iPhones, it might just be easier to tie in all of the devices and apps together since if you have one, you most like have the rest as well. I think the biggest improvement that could be made to these things would be a time limit of sorts. For example, if you could only use Instagram for an hour a day. I feel like if this was a real thing, people would think more before whipping out their phone and mindlessly scrolling through their numerous amounts of feeds and whatnot. It would be better to make people shorten their time on these apps since these apps and devices are causing people to have this false idea that they are something that they aren’t. This falsification allows people’s perception of one another along with the perception of themselves to be altered in a way that isn’t healthy, whether it feels good at the moment or not. Along with this altered perception, there’s also the fact that we simply do not have as much time on this planet as we sometimes think, and with that being said, I think a large amount of the world’s population wouldn’t want to waste their life away on a device or app. The moral of the story is that yes, these devices and apps give us the dopamine releases we crave and make us feel good, but is this ease of access to these releases truly healthy. How long until we start to prioritize our phones over our friends or family?
You must be logged in to post a comment.