Innovative Design:
The creation of ‘mood’, a new mobile application, is designed for the increase of emotional well-being. The application is a collaboration of ethics, environmentalism, mental health, and the arts. The app ‘mood’ includes various resources for mental health help including 24/7 e-chat counselors, meditation guides and music, art therapy activities, emergency resources and hotlines, as well as numerous articles on self-help and mental health. While combating emotional well-being, our app is also designed to be as eco and ethically friendly to our planet and society as possible. A large portion of ‘mood’s profits are donated to multiple honorable organizations (described specifically in costs). The ‘mood’ app also includes a built in timer that aims to stray users from overuse of social media and technology. After a certain amount of time spent scrolling, or in increments throughout the day, ‘mood’ will block the user from continuing, and encourage other non-tech activities. It should also be noted that, if a user finds an article or reading that may take longer than the allowed time, a user can save said article to read for later even if the rest of the app locks. Finally, ‘mood’ will always include access to emergency services for mental health. Mobile applications can have a significant negative impact on ourselves and society, so every ounce of our app was made with care. These are the primary technical elements that make ‘mood’ a safe and effective space within social media and technology.
Updated Criteria:
As college-aged artists, specifically digital, social media is bound to be a large part of our learning process, futures, and creativity. The main debocable is: How do we enjoy technology and social media use as creatives while staying kind, ethical, and supportive to ourselves and our community? Even as the creators of a new mobile application that is in a somewhat similar style to a social media platform, we have our doubts and fears about the project. However, the reality of our present conditions is that technology and social media will continue to grow. What is most important is how we choose to handle it, as individuals and towards our community. With that in mind, our app was created with zero ‘evil’ intent. Any ads that are included (primarily to be able to support organizations and causes close to our heart) will be without tricks, over-costly products, and will all be ethically made. Our goal is to really believe in the benefits of any service or design we include in our application. Being in New Media especially, we need creative outlets. Art therapy is a large part of our life and we strongly encourage it to anyone near us. With experience in meditation practices, it is highly underacknowlged how helpful it can be for centering your thoughts and going through the day with more clarity, and less anxiety. Another sad reality of our generation is the addiction we carry towards technology and social media. The time-limit measurements set up in ‘mood’ ensure that this won’t be an issue on our platform. Additionally, time spent on the application will become all the more meaningful and intentful, as opposed to mindless scrolling. Our app ‘mood’ is useful to people of all ages and demographics, but it holds a special place and use in our hearts.
Supportive Context:
The mobile application ‘mood’ would likely be primarily supported by younger adults, teens, and mental health organizations. It would be a good resource to be recommended by artists for mental health, activists, influencers, maybe even teachers and mental health professionals. Any community or person who is searching for increased emotional well-being would benefit. It is a good alternative to traditional social media, that encourages addiction, heightened depression, friend spam, heightened anxiety, etc. The app is made for the average young user. Consider this quote from the article “How Social Media Helps People With Depression, From Giving Them a Voice To Breaking Down Stigma”, by Natasha Hinde, “Social media is providing a catalyst and conduit for people to break down perceptions around depression, and finally explain how they feel.” (Hinde, 1) The app reaches ethical communities, looking to change the path of technology and social media as we know it.
Weight Cost:
The practical costs of the creation of our mobile app vary, but the real cost is the effect on the environment. As described in the article, “Do Our Mobile Applications Have a Real Impact on Global Warming?”, by Par Julia Meyer, “By 2020, the carbon footprint of smartphones will exceed the individual contribution of desktops, laptops and monitors.” (Meyer, 1) With this in mind, our goal is to keep our global footprint as small as possible and contribute back to our planet and its people. The article includes important ways on how to combat this, including: our app will not make users constantly spend on new technologies when updating (which would create excess waste), our app includes a time limit that “doesn’t make them sit in front of their phones for hours”, and doesn’t store useless amounts of data. The cost of the app doesn’t have to be detrimental. Our goal is to design an app to be helpful towards the user’s and society’s needs, and nothing more. As for the practical costs, most will consist of production of the format of the app, content by authors, employee pay to provide chat rooms, the time it takes to make, and a few other smaller entities. We would gain profit through advertising; however, a large majority of the profit made will go to organizations such as ‘Cool Earth’, ‘National Alliance on Mental Illness’, and other organizations as needed.
Information Sources:
https://www.bam.tech/article/do-our-mobile-applications-have-a-real-impact-on-global-warming
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