Task 2 – Ethan Suderley

I read the articles “Negative effects of technology” and “9 Subtle Ways Technology is Making Humanity Worse“. As a person who leans more towards being an introvert, I often find myself struggling with making friends. Not because social interaction is hard, but I don’t feel like I have the energy to talk or that I don’t know how to start a conversation. In the articles I read that technology can cause isolation, as well as bad posture. This happens because of the addictive nature of technology keeping us inside and inactive, and sitting in the same spot makes our posture worse. I have an idea for an app that could help put a twist on social media allowing us to make new friends with ease and getting us active. The app in question would be called “Hot Spots”. Hot spots would be a social media platform that relies on location services. All users on the platform would be anonymous and there would be no direct messaging. The only thing users would be able to post were on a public wall page detailing a time and place of meeting,  as well as their interests. For example someone would be able to post publicly, ” Looking for Taylor Swift fans to meet on the mall at 6:00 pm today” and if enough people used the special “RSVP” button similar to a like button, A radar with the name of the group would be posted on the in app map along with how many people are interested in going. This way people could just choose a spot on the map near them, and anyone that finds it that shares that similar interest would know where to go to find those people. The interface would be designed very simply in order not to overwhelm the users. Hot Spots would hopefully have a similar effect as “Pokemon Go” in getting people get out of their house, and have the benefit of actually scheduling a time to meet up somewhere.