I can think of two harmful things off the top of my head that I have experienced when it comes to technology, although there are surely many more. The first is the emptiness that social media creates in us. It has been a long time since I’ve used social media regularly, but I remember one time a few years ago I redownloaded Instagram and logged into my old account to see how people I once knew were doing. I felt so empty and down after that I felt compelled to delete my account altogether, and even now, I don’t regret it. I can only imagine how much more intensely I would experience those feelings if I used social media regularly. The other is a physical symptom that the articles discussed, which is experiencing pain in the neck and shoulders as a result of hunching over our devices. I find it especially bad when I am using my laptop on a table that is too high for me. It forces me to tense up my shoulders and leaves them aching during and afterwards.

One idea I have that could improve social media usage is some sort of feature to add on to existing platforms that essentially checks in with the user at certain intervals, sort of like how watching several episodes of a show in a row on Netflix prompts the user with “are you still watching?” Ideally, it would tell the user how long it has been since they opened the app, at perhaps thirty minute intervals, and suggest that they take a break. I also like the idea of this add on displaying reassuring messages to the user every so often, sort of like an ad. It could be beneficial for users to see messages saying that they are worth it or to not believe everything they see. Overall, that could bring more awareness to the issues that have arisen from social media, as well as encourage users to be more aware of their thoughts while they are on the app. I wonder if it could promote better mental health. Adding easy access to resources for mental health would also be essential.

An issue I could see arising from this is opposition from executives of social media platforms. If there were messages to promote users to spend less time on social media, that would be counterproductive to the goals of the people behind the platforms and probably harm their numbers. This idea is something that could promote better habits and well-being for users at the expense of the companies and advertisers. Although there could possibly be some potential, I think the idea would lose to the corporations. I think that we are still in a place where companies are valued more than people. An alternative idea, I suppose, would be to create a separate app with mental health guidance specifically designed to combat the negative affects of using social media. Maybe it could have a feature where the app could run in the background while the user is on a social media app and send time notifications that way.