Category: NMD200

Format: The tools I usually enjoy using are both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Premiere Pro, so I will probably use either one of these or both of these in order to create my re-design project.

Values: Three values I support are:

• Family (or friends) values: I support family values because I believe that it is vital to have a solid support system in general, no matter what it is you’re doing in your life. Having people to communicate and spend time with is a necessity to the human experience because it offers a sense of community as well as some sort of “safe-space” where one can be themselves.
• Mental health: I strongly support mental health because being in a good headspace and being mindful of how you feel and what your plans are is essential to both achieving goals and being able to care for yourself and others.
• Language education: I support language education because learning new language either alone or through language exchange helps people discover and learn about new cultures that they may otherwise have never taken an interest in. Learning about new cultures is important because it allows our sense of how big the world is to expand and realize that the world does no revolve around Western culture like so many people from America think it does.

I think taking these values into consideration when re-designing will certainly help personalize my project.

Problem: The problem I’d like to tackle for this project is teaching/learning/interacting with others during this pandemic, specifically. I think this is an important topic of discussion because at this point in time, everyone is currently relying on their technology in order to be able to do everything from talk to their family on a regular basis to making sure their kids are able to continue their educations/making sure they’re able to maintain their jobs. However, technology isn’t always reliable and it also is not accessible to everyone.

Proposed re/design: I think that perhaps setting up some sort of program or website where people can organize and set up times to use technology (laptops/tablets) that they otherwise don’t have access to in these times while still being socially distant, not in a confined space and sanitary could be beneficial to the problem I’m trying to solve. I also think creating some sort of outreach program (that’s free) for people to participate in where they can discuss how the pandemic has affected them and their mental health would be beneficial.

Actual Project: I think I could potentially make a video/video essay using clips from news stories/people’s personal videos and experiences from various background about how difficult it has been during the pandemic to maintain their lives in general.

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Revised Idea: I still think that I’ll make a video discussing the effect that COVID-19 has had on people, however, because my family is willing to participate in any sort of video I’d make, I want to change the topic of my video slightly. I’m now planning on conducting an interview with the three of them separately and then together in order to see what their experiences have been like throughout the pandemic. I would like to ask them about how technology has helped them or hurt them. I’ll also incorporate my own experiences into the video, as well. As for the redesign element of the project, I’d have to see what their responses are in order to suggest a redesign for whatever technology they’ve found the least helpful for work/school/their social lives etc.

After reading the article Explainer: what is surveillance capitalism and how does it shape our economy? I managed to gain more insight into how different companies who own websites, browsers etc. all use our (consumers’) web searches, people we interact with and pages we view to create a sort of “profile” for us that they can use to market and sell our information to other companies/entities. As the article states, “Surveillance capitalism describes a market driven process where the commodity for sale is your personal data, and the capture and production of this data relies on mass surveillance of the internet. This activity is often carried out by companies that provide us with free online services, such as search engines (Google) and social media platforms (Facebook). These companies collect and scrutinize our online behaviors (likes, dislikes, searches, social networks, purchases) to produce data that can be further used for commercial purposes. And it’s often done without us understanding the full extent of the surveillance.” (Source) Like most people, this is concerning to me because there is virtually no way for us, the consumer, to regulate what our own information is being used for or who is viewing our information.

One point this article raised that was perhaps the most concerning was, “Commonly used wearables like smart watches and fitness trackers, for example, are becoming part of everyday health care practices. Our activities and biometric data can be stored and used to interpret our health and fitness status. This same data is of great value to health insurance providers. In the US, some insurance providers require a data feed from the policyholder’s device in order to qualify for insurance cover. (Source) This was particularly disconcerting because one’s health and medical status is something that is very private and something that should be secure between said person and their doctor/healthcare provider. However, when someone’s health is being tracked by a device like a smart watch or fitness tracker, this leaves people’s sensitive information to be left in the hands of the tech and for the people who make these devices to do with whatever they please. I know that I, personally, would not be okay with any of my health information being disclosed to anyone through a smartwatch. Tech isn’t always reliable and if I (or anyone, for that matter) wasn’t able to get health insurance because of some sort of error, that would obviously be a huge problem.

I think that not allowing technology like smartwatches to be able to be used to determine someone’s health status (or any other status, really) is important in mitigating most people’s concerns when it comes to surveillance and technology. Making sure that big companies like Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon etc. are all being watched carefully and regulated when it comes to what kind of information they’re allowed to share and whom with, as well as disclosing this to their consumers is important, as well. Allowing users and consumers to decide what kind of information they wish to share with companies other than whatever website they’re using in the first place might also help with making people less worried about where their information is going and what’s being done with it.

The “anti-bias avatar” I chose for this journal entry is a twelve year old Black girl who is especially interested in superheroes/comic books. I decided to use YouTube as the website I would search for videos on that are related to this topic. YouTube is a video sharing platform owned by Google where users can upload free content for their audience (subscribers) to watch. YouTube content usually is fairly short-form, mostly being anywhere from 10-20 minutes long. I chose YouTube because it’s one of my most used social media apps and I was curious as to what would come up for my searches because I don’t personally frequently search for anything related to comics/superheroes.

• As you can see by this first screenshot, comic books were what I searched for first in the YouTube search bar. As I watched the top three videos that come up after the initial search, I noticed that all three “creators” (although, the Pawn Stars channel is more so an extension of the popular TV show, the men featured in the video are all white) were white men.

• After scrolling about halfway down the page, I noticed that there was one POC creator who is featured. However, all of the videos before we see his channel are made by white men or feature white men talking about comic books/movies that also feature mostly just white men.

• Because I was having trouble finding videos that featured any creators who are POC, I decided to just search the term “black superheroes” and what came up was immediately disappointing. As you can see from the screenshot above, the first three videos are indeed about Black superheroes (although not necessarily made by Black creators). However, the video thumbnail for the third video features Black Panther and who I assume to be an overtly sexualized version of Storm from the X-Men comic books.

• As I scrolled down a bit more, I noticed another video where there is an overtly sexualized Black woman in the thumbnail while the male character is fully clothed in his superhero costume. For both this thumbnail and the pervious example, one could conclude that these thumbnails are simply made to draw in clicks for the video. However, when comparing these images of Black women to the Black men in the same image and keeping in mind that a twelve year old girl is looking at this, it’s easy to see that the men aren’t being sexualized at all and that this could be damaging, in the long run, for a young girl to see and continue to see throughout her lifetime. Although women should be free to embrace their sexuality however they choose, I think it’s important to pay attention to who is creating and designing these characters. Are they designed by men or women? Are the people creating the thumbnails men or women? Is the content being created by men or women? A twelve year old Black girl listening to another Black woman talk about her favorite Black superheroes (male or female) could be an important experience in understanding part of her identity and finding community for such a young girl. However, when she is rarely able to see other POC at all (because of YouTube’s flawed search bar algorithm), let alone POC women, talking about things she’s interested in (and when she does, the people who she can identify with are all being sexualized), that can be detrimental to her self-worth and self-esteem in the long run.

I think it’s important to promote all creators on every social media platform. However, flagging thumbnails depending on what they have in them and making sure that everyone has equal opportunity to talk about the things that they love and be seen by the same wide audience as those who regularly get millions of views on their videos, is important. I think fixing who is seen and what is seen first after searching for something on YouTube would be important to so many people who might otherwise feel like the only content on the website is made by mostly white men.

Mom’s Interview:

Brother’s Interview:

The two people I was able to interview for this assignment were my mom and my brother. Because the two of them were children/young adults four decades apart, the two experienced technology in vastly different ways. My mom was born in the early 1960’s, so she watched technology grow and change beginning in an era where everyone owned a television and/or a radio, up to now where everyone owns a smartphone that they can keep in their pocket. Whereas, my brother was born in the early 2000’s, so he’s only really experienced the last 18 years of technological growth in our society. However, because he learned how to use a DVD player/how to play video games/how to work a smartphone and tablet all before the age of ten years old, he’s much more proficient with technology than my mom is. As my mom states in her interview, she never spent much time on devices while she was growing up. She was allowed to watch maybe an hour of TV a day with her family after dinner or on the weekends. She was also allowed maybe some time on the phone, but only to figure out plans for meeting with her friends face to face. She also mentions desktop computers and bag-phones, as well as pay-phones, which she often used but because all of those things are now considered almost ancient and outdated, she has a harder time figuring out how to use things like “bookmarks” on a browser page or different settings in a smartphone.

However, as previously stated, my brother grew up with technology. He spends nearly nine hours a day on his smartphone before 3pm, so needless to say, he never finds it difficult to use tech unless its software he’s simply not familiar with yet. I found it interesting that my brother finds it easier to listen to music/podcasts via streaming services because 15/10 years ago, he would have had to either buy individual songs on iTunes (I was doing this as little as 9-10 years ago before Spotify/Apple Music/YouTube Music/Tidal etc.) or buy physical copies of CD’s to download or play in a CD player and listen to the radio. I also found it interesting that my mom’s day without tech sounded relaxing i.e, listening to old tapes and reading a book outside while my brother would just play with the dog for most of the day and have to miss work because he wouldn’t have a phone to be able to get a ride back home after he was done working. Overall, the two had very different experiences growing up in eras with such different technology. Even so, the technology they had at the time always had one thing in common- it made most things much easier for them to do.

The over-use of technology has been rapidly growing not only in America, but all over the world, over the last few years. Because of this, it’s extremely important (perhaps even detrimental to our society as whole) to find the time to take breaks from our devices throughout the day. However, app developers and web-designers have made that nearly impossible to do, as most of their designs double as strategic attempts to keep users’ attention for an extended amount of time. Re-designing these apps, like Youtube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook – is the best way to help people manage their time more effectively and create time for something other than using their devices/the internet. “More than 2 billion people own smartphones, with that number expected to reach 2.87 billion in 2020. In the United States, smartphones have grown increasingly common over the last seven years. According to the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of American adults own smartphones, up from 35 percent in 2011. A whopping 94 percent of people aged 18–29 own smartphones, as do 89 percent of people aged 30–49 and 73 percent of people aged 60–64. There’s no truly significant drop until you hit 65 and older, but even then, the ownership number is still 46 percent.” (Source) As this information states, more and more people are starting to use smartphones and at younger and younger ages. This just further illustrates why it’s so important for everyone (app developers and their consumers) to start forming better habits when it comes to tech device usage.

“But we all know how hard it can be to get off the internet once we’re plugged in: In fact, a study in 2014 found that 6 percent of the global population suffered from full-blown internet addiction.” (Source) This article perfectly encapsulates why it’s important to step away from our phones, laptops and tablets. Using the internet and social media apps is addictive and when we’re encouraged to keep using them, but to not hold ourselves or the designers/developers accountable for how much time we’re spending on their apps or websites, we continue without really thinking about how much it’s costing us. “Harris, a former participant in Stanford University’s Persuasive Tech Lab, said in his TED conference speech that tech designers know exactly how to manipulate people into keeping their eyes on the screen: “There’s conferences and workshops that teach people all these covert ways of getting people’s attention and orchestrating people’s lives. And it’s because most people don’t know that that exists that this conversation is so important.” (Source) I’ve certainly spent hours scrolling through multiple websites. Twitter, especially in the time of political and social unrest, a global pandemic and even “murder hornets,” became almost addictive for me for several weeks. I constantly found myself checking the “trending pages” and scrolling endlessly through other users’ fights with each other about whether or not COVID-19 is real, seeing what everyone else around the world was doing while they were quarantining and even when my favorite sports teams were going to be coming back (if they were going to ever be coming back at all). I feel like some of this anxiety and constant social media-checking has carried over into the seventh month of the pandemic, so I still find myself constantly on social media as it’s my main source for news and I feel like I don’t want to miss anything these days.

Seeing as though Twitter is one of the apps I use the most, I think that it could do with a bit of a re-design when it comes to the interface, how people are allowed to interact with one another and what is allowed to be shared on the platform. One of the things I noticed while using the app throughout quarantine was that sometimes, as the user scrolls through their timeline or another user’s profile (at least, on an iPhone XS) the time will disappear from the upper left corner of the device. This often allows me to scroll for several minutes at a time without thinking about how much time I’m spending looking through news, memes and everyone else’s political opinions. Changing this to having the time showing at all times would surely help me, as well as others, keep track of how much time they’re spending on the app. Twitter also uses the “endless scroll” feature which enables user to scroll through their timelines without the page ever stopping. Making this a page that only shows 15-20 Tweets at a time might help break up how much time users are spending endlessly scrolling. Twitter is also known amongst it’s more frequent users as a fairly toxic place where people tend to not just engage in discourse, but even participate in full on heated arguments where threats are sometimes exchanged between the two (or more) participants. I’m aware that Twitter does have policies in place to try to prevent this type of behavior on the platform, however, it does seem to go unpunished in a lot of cases. Having stricter policies might prevent this from happening. Lastly, Twitter also has a problem with graphic images and videos being shared on the website. Though, some things do also get flagged as being graphic when they aren’t. I feel that having better A.I to detect these kinds of things, as well as having a better, faster system for review would help solve this problem or at least improve it a bit. In our society today, I think it’s more evident than ever that many people are desensitized to how much time they’re spending on their smartphones, which often causes more loneliness and isolation than it offers more space for community and interaction with others.

Another problem I’ve noticed as I’ve been frequenting Twitter for the last few months, is a lot of people are also desensitized to the news we read and hear everyday. Especially with people who are my age and younger (who can read and comprehend the news, so perhaps from ages 15-30), I find that they become interested in political causes or movements due to a tragic event they’ve heard about (or even just an event in general, maybe it doesn’t necessarily have to be tragic) and then they don’t follow through with the activism that needs to continue after they initially become interested in the cause/movement. Either this happens, or they never become interested at all and try to stay away from the news as much as they can so as to not be made uncomfortable by it. This perhaps the more unfortunate scenario of the two because people need to help other people, that’s one of the core foundations of our humanity. However, social media tends to allow us to back away from this and keep it at a distance because we’re able to turn our devices on and off or even “mute” things we don’t wish to see or hear. I think that apps like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are all important for sharing what’s happening to people in the current political climate as well as just in society in general. However, they can be untrustworthy due to the fact that anyone can post anything and anyone can then share that information to hundreds of people who might also share it to hundreds of more people. I think it’s important to not only be informed about what’s actually going on in our communities, as well as globally, but to also genuinely care. As humans, we can’t possibly keep track of every tragedy everyone else in the world will face, but we can at least care and try to do our best to help those who are in need, whether they’re close to us or somewhere across the world.

The behavior I decided to commit to for the rest of the semester is practicing learning a new language via Duolingo/Youtube videos, etc. I’ve been learning Korean for the last few months because I was watching a lot of Korean television and film a few months ago and I wondered if I would be able to learn the language so that I wouldn’t have to watch the shows/movies with subtitles. Since starting learning the language (in May of this year), I believe that my ability to remember and recall information has improved. I also feel like taking a break from social media/everything around me and focusing only on the lessons I’m trying to complete helps me relax at the end of the day. I want to continue this behavior until the end of the semester (and hopefully afterwards, as well) so that I can see the documented progress of how much Korean I’ve managed to retain/if my memory continues to improve after the six/seven month mark of learning the language.

In the attached screenshot, you can see my individual information in the Duolingo app. This shows me my weekly and daily xp (experience points). Experience points allow me to see, roughly, how many lessons I’ve completed over the last week. In the statistics section, I can see my “streak” (how many days in a row I’ve completed a lesson), my total xp over-all (I have also practiced other languages like Japanese, French and Swedish so those factor into my xp but not by much), how many “crowns” I’ve obtained (I receive crowns after finishing every lesson in a section completely i.e there’s a section of lessons called “food” and in this section, there are roughly 25 lessons. After completing all of these, I earn a crown.), and which “league” I’m in. Each player is given the opportunity each week to “level up” to a new league. For now, the diamond league is the highest tier of leagues a player can reach. The last two sections of this informational panel show which languages I’m learning and the in-game/app achievements I’ve earned but I don’t feel that they’re particularly important in this exercise.

I think that taking the time to complete the lessons from the course every day and looking at the panel from the screenshot every now and again has helped me feel accomplished about something. I feel like I’m learning something helpful. Though I’m not sure when or where I’ll need to speak or understand Korean outside of watching movies and tv shows, I also just really enjoy learning a new language and because I’m learning the language, I’ve enjoyed learning more about Korean culture.

The advice I would give to anyone learning a new language is, if you really want to learn the language, immerse yourself into it. Listening to music in that language (even children’s songs and nursery rhymes), watching movies and shows and reading children’s books can be really helpful in remembering words, especially when those words aren’t in romanized spelling. Doing all of this also makes learning fun and interesting, whereas just doing lessons on Duolingo and watching videos about sentence structure and grammar can get a bit boring after a while. Consistency is also important when seriously trying to learn a new language.

“But we all know how hard it can be to get off the internet once we’re plugged in: In fact, a study in 2014 found that 6 percent of the global population suffered from full-blown internet addiction. This is because the internet has evolved to become very good at triggering dopamine release in our heads — and dopamine is a very pleasing chemical to have released in your head. For example, liking Instagram photos triggers dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, a key node in the reward system. That study actually found that, if you’re a teenager, liking Instagram releases more and more rewarding dopamine as you go from being 14 to being 18. Which explains a lot.” (Source)

1. The quote this article is pulled from is discussing the longterm effects of using the internet and how it effects our brains.
2. This quote is suggesting that because, as children, teens and young adults, we all are interacting with each other on the internet (on apps such as Instagram) and liking each other’s posts, this (liking posts and receiving likes) causes a dopamine rush which can becomes addictive over time.
3. In connection to the things I’ve witnessed firsthand as a young adult with many friends my own age, this seems to be an accurate representation of how my generation interacts with social media. I’ve known many people who simply cannot put their phones down or who are always checking their social media notifications. I’ve noticed that most children who have smart phones tend to not have social media accounts and only use social media/the internet to watch videos or play games.
4. Because the information in this quote doesn’t come as a surprise to me, I feel like that alone helps me understand and remember just how reliant people my age are on their smartphones/social media and the internet. I tend to not think about how often I’m on social media or how satisfied or unsatisfied I am with something I’ve posted depending on how many “likes” it gets. However, after reading this article, I’m now more aware of the fact that I do pay more attention to things like “likes” than I think.

“Multitasking participants had more difficulty filtering out irrelevant information than those focusing on one task at a time. Multitaskers also took longer to switch tasks, juggle problems and wasted time searching for new information when information they had was better and more reliable. In fact, students from Columbia and Harvard universities retained facts better when they knew they couldn’t get them from a computer, according to a study published in Science magazine in 2011. If they knew they could get the facts later online, they just remembered how and where to get it.” (Source)

1. The article this quote is from is discussing the longterm, lasting effects of using technology every day and how that impacts our health.
2. The quote I chose is implying that because of how regularly we multitask nowadays, it’s difficult for most people to not only focus on one thing at a time, but to also retain important information without having to looking it up online.
3. I’ve experienced this lack of being able to retain information first hand, many times. Over the summer, I started learning how to speak and read Korean. As most people know, learning how to speak and read another language requires focus and the ability to memorize new words and sentence structures that are learned every day. However, I found myself thinking of the words I had learned, but not remembering what they meant. I’d often use Google or have to refer back to notes I had saved in my phone. I feel like this lack of being able to retain the meanings behind the words is due to not having to retain much information anymore because I always have a way (my smartphone and the internet) to find what I need, when I need it.
4. In the context of how this increases my understanding of myself and those around me, I think this information just reminds me that instead of automatically reaching for my phone, I should try my best to really remember what certain words or quotes mean. Unless I really don’t know or have yet to learn whatever it is I’m curious about, I think it would be more helpful if I took the time to try to remember what it is that I’m unsure of. I think that people who are experiencing similar issues with retaining information would benefit from doing the same thing.

Augmentation:

1. Fitness apps/trackers help a lot of my gym-frequenting friends keep track of their physical health. A lot of my friends who work out to build muscle have to keep track of not only their caloric intake, but also what kid of workouts they’re doing as well as how many reps and sets they’re doing while they’re doing those workouts. [“Fitness apps help people easily track and visualize their progress. They also allow easy access to workouts allowing for increased freedom when choosing when and where you want to work out.” Source]

2. During the COVID-19 pandemic, without being able to use the internet and our smartphones/computers, not very many people would be able to continue getting their education, nor would we have been able to maintain some sort of “face to face” (albeit virtual) contact with our friends and family.  [“Technology has transformed life in a myriad of ways, changing the ways we work, live and relax. It has benefited society in many ways such as advancing education, entertainment, communication and health, allowing us to surpass the dreams of the generations before us.” Source]

3. I feel that because I, and so many other people my age, have grown up with the rapid advancement of technology over the last twenty years, we’ve been able to make a lot of friends through the internet (PSN, Twitter, Tumblr etc.). Due to this, I’ve been able to gain more perspective on how others live their lives in other parts of the world. I have friends from not only all around the country, but also a few that I’ve communicated with who are from places like Ireland, England and Australia. I’ve learned about how those countries go about their schooling, their politics and what their economies are like from the friends I’ve met online. [“Daniel Weitzner, principal research scientist and founding director of MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative, explained, “Human beings want and need connection, and the internet is the ultimate connection machine. Whether on questions of politics, community affairs, science, education, romance or economic life, the internet does connect people with meaningful and rewarding information and relationships. … I have to feel confident that we can continue to gain fulfillment from these human connections.” Source]

4. As technology has progressed, I’ve discovered that I constantly need to have a piece of technology with me at all times. My smartphone is a tool that allows me to keep up with current events – I always have a stream of news and information in my pocket for whenever I need to look something up or for when I need to see what’s going on in the world if there’s been some sort of emergency or major event. In this way, technology has been majorly helpful because without it, I wouldn’t be able to be kept in the loop and up to date as well as I currently am. [“Humans need tools. Humans need and want augmentation. And as the saying goes ‘First we make our tools, then our tools form us’.” Source]

Amputation:

1. During the COVID-19 quarantine, I found myself using my smartphone a lot more often than I usually did. I was growing increasingly anxious as the days passed, so I was always looking for something to distract me and because of this, I started to have a hard time falling asleep. Not only was my anxiety about the uncertainty of the world’s future keeping me up at night, but so was staring at my phone screen for up to ten to twelve hours a day, afraid that I might miss something important.  [“Regularly engaging in these habits has made our sleep even worse. The late-night use of devices alters our brain’s production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, which makes it harder for us to get a good night’s sleep.” Source]

2. Technology being such an important part of our society has made it more difficult to get people off of their smartphones and laptops. Most of my family and friends are always hunched over a screen, reading, watching a video or playing a game. My parents often complain about how their necks hurt because they’re constantly looking down at their phones while they’re reading their ebooks. This became so common between the two of them that my dad ended buying my mom a device she could put around her neck that would hold her phone up for her while she was reading. [“Health experts such as Dr. Robert Bolash have suggested that the constant hunching over smartphones and screens have led to muscle pain in the neck and shoulders of teens and adolescents, terming the condition ‘text neck’.” Source]

3. Even though my friends and I have all made friends with others online at some point, there is also a sense of loneliness that comes from only having contact with those online. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was especially isolating because, though it was nice to see everyone on Zoom and FaceTime, it just wasn’t the same as getting dinner with them or having them over to play cards or watch movies. [“The attachment to our devices can also leave us feeling isolated. A significant lack of human contact can even cause depression. When the majority of our interactions with others take place online we may even feel disconnected from humanity.” Source]

4. I’ve found that because I have a constant stream of information and news in my pocket, I’ll see things that will bother me for a few hours or days, but then I tend to forget about them after another disaster or tragedy happens. I believe this comes along with always knowing information that people twenty or thirty years ago either would have never known unless it was through word of mouth or by just reading about it in a newspaper. However, the people who are part of my generation are seeing the gruesome and violent images and videos unedited online and unfortunately, I feel like a lot of us have become used to seeing such images and though they disturb us, they don’t carry as much weight with them as they would if we weren’t seeing them as often as we do. [“Loss of empathy is yet another example of how technology has changed our lives in a bad way. As we become more and more accustomed to online violence, we may get to the point where it no longer even bothers us.” Source]