Design Flaw to human vulnerabilities: Unlimited usage of social media feeds our addictive nature to compare ourselves.

Design solution: App that limits the amount of time the user can explore social media

New media and technology continues to advance quickly as time goes on. We use technology every day in many different ways such as smart phones, computers, TV, and many more. These advances have positive impacts on society, but also results in many negatives. One of these negative impacts is over usage of social media platforms.

Humans naturally have an addictive nature to compare themselves. We do this in the work place, social situations, financial situations, and really most of our social lives. Before new technology, people would compare to a small group of people or friends, which can be healthy to a degree. Now, social media has broadened our addiction to basically the entire world. We are now comparing ourselves to to a wide range of people that we might be jealous of, want to be, or want to look like. The nature has switched to being “healthy competition” to a serious addiction that causes health issues. “Insider” explains a national survey administered by the University of Pittsburgh Center for Research on Media. This survey came to the conclusion that using seven to eleven social media platforms triples the risk of depression and anxiety. This survey was aimed towards adults, but personally, I have experienced more of a risk in younger teenagers. As young girls and boys go through puberty, their emotions and bodies change greatly in a small amount of time. This is already enough stress and anxiety without comparing our bodies or emotions to other people. “Medical News Today” speaks about the link between social networks and mental health issues. They found that people who perceived that they had more negative social interactions online experience higher levels of depression and anxiety. Most teens use many different social media platforms up to 11 hours a day. They post pictures, tweets, or experiences, looking for acceptance from their online peers. When friends and peers do interact with your post, a rush of dopamine takes over and makes you feel good. Although this is true, the rush only lasts so long, and soon we crave more of that feeling. When we don’t receive that acceptance or praise, we wonder what we did wrong. Its human nature to crave that feeling of praise, but social media makes the feeling addictive. Not getting enough “likes” on a picture we posted is now causing us to doubt ourselves in many different ways. In many cases, anxiety and depression begins because of this feeling of not being liked or accepted.

This needs to change, fast. I think a solution to this problem is seriously reducing the amount of time spent of social media. If people are not given the unlimited time to search for hours on end, they will not be able to get into the negative head space. Comparing over and over again to people we might not even know becomes addicting and causes very low self of steam, depression, and anxiety. My design is for an app that limits and tracks social media usage. The app will ask the user how many hours they think they spend on social media, and it will then track how much the user actually used it. I predict that the user will think they use platforms much less than they actually do. The user will then put in a limit of how much time they are allowed to spend on social media, and the app will give recommendations. Once they used up their time on social media, the app will give a reminder that they are now not allowed to use social media. My design colors are warm and calming to help reduce anxiety of the user.