Hi! I’m Kate, independent UX/Design researcher based in Montreal. Have been very aware of these issues for a while. Aside deciding which clients to work for, working directly with design students here and more lately kicking off a “Mindful Design” podcast with some people that lean the same way, I’ve been finding it personally and professionally challenging to champion changes and so I am very happy to join a larger current in whatever capacity I can offer.
Right now I’m exploring how UX research itself can be instrumental in bringing about more humane tech.
I think we have not grasped the actual magnitude of the problem posed by ubiquitous technology.
Instant gratification is perhaps the most obvious problem: basically it is the opposite of intelligence - remember the Stanford marshmallow experiment.
A deficit in social skills is often described and I am also more and more convinced that there is also an impact on the ability to develop independent thinking, and even on the ability to organize thought clearly.
Looking to hear from those in this group who want to test a new concept. The initial focus group is being conducted at UCLA. Not claiming to have THE solution, but a potential solution to get people interacting again in meaningful ways. Feedback and smart minds are required to shape the product to ensure it’s success.
I’m open to sharing more on a one-to-one basis - and welcome those who actually read this to contact me. I’m not active on any social media other than LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajay-shah75/ where you can learn more about me.
Message me here or add me on LI and together we can create the next Social Revolution…
Last, I’m based in Los Angeles with my team so if you’re in the area and want to get together in person always open to doing the event exchange. Where I invite you to something you’ve never attended (or somewhere you haven’t been) and if we click the next time you are welcome to invite me to something I’ve never attended, and now thanks to this forum we are both better because of our meeting.
My name is Bocces. I develop educational programs that encourage critical thinking and logic. I teach people how to use technology, but I strive to teach my students how to use it wisely.
I am interested in this conversation because I have long been aware of the overreliance upon technology in communities of color and its detrimental impact on the psyche and overall health of people of these communities. I think that how these communities are encouraged to use tech only increases the negative impact. I want to find ways to help mitigate the harm of tech dependence. I want to find tools that will help me to continue my efforts to educate underserved groups and give them the knowledge that will empower them to make informed decisions about how they want to use/consume tech.
Mother of 4, positive journalist, GSuite Admin for companies,passionate 4 tech. Currently experiencing a social media burn out and rethinking about it.
Hi. I’m a Danish psychologist, writing a self help book about social media distractions, why they occur, why they’re a problem and how they actually work. But most importantly, I try to tell people what they can do about… hey, a squirrel!
Well. Hey, a squirrel! Is actually the working title of the book.!
My name is Drew DiPrinzio. I just finished my undergraduate degree in May and I’m currently on a Fulbright research project studying the use of mobile phones by rural populations in India. I’m focusing on how the sharing of information is changing with the shift from old broadcast media (radio, TV) to new media on mobile phones (SMS, IVR, Video, WhatsApp). I hope this project will help India balance the provision of services with the preservation of privacy for the millions of new users just starting to go online, and even more importantly, how we can continue to serve and include populations that aren’t yet online.
I’m not sure what I will do after, but hoping it will be at the nexus of social networks and data governance. Sometimes I write on Medium. Looking forward to interacting with you all!
Hi I’m Mick Moran. I am a parent but also a member of An Garda Síochána which is Ireland’s national police service and have been working online since 1997. I have a keen interest in crime prevention online and most of my service has been working in the area of online child exploitation both with my agency and INTERPOL.
This movement therefore is an articulation of many of the ideas I have been spouting for a long time.
I am a lecturer at CCI University College Dublin and am on the advisory board of Cybersafe Ireland an NGO dedicated to education around keeping kids safe online.
I received the M3AAWG Mary Litynski award 2017.
Hello! I’m thrilled to have a place to engage in a deeper discourse on this topic. I’m the author of The Future of Happiness: 5 Modern Strategies for Balancing Technology and Well-being in the Digital Era, as a well as a blogger for Forbes and ThriveGlobal. I’m a technology embracer who believes that mindfulness (or lack thereof) is quickly becoming the next big digital divide. I believe that all of us have a responsibility to teach the current/younger generations how to use technology better, and am constantly on the lookout for ideas/resources to share with my audiences.
HI,
My name is Colette. I did graduate with a degree and masters in computer science back in the early 1980’s - (I learnt machine code and ms dos among many other useful things!) and went on to lecture in a London university for many years, so as my kids remind me I am now a dinasaur ! However, after many visits to India I am now a passionate advocate of human values and mindfulness as an inner compass for teens to handle the anxiety and stress and decreasing levels of attention. I present CPD in Ireland at teachers centres on emotional and mental wellness including how to assist school kids of all ages deal with technology. What I aim to get across is that the inner values are the key to kids holding their own in the world of technology and so this is what I focus on. Together with mindfulness this is another thread of helping support our children make the right choice for them as opposed to being manipulated by technology . So I will be including this site going forward as a resource for teachers to educate themselves more. The teachers are so willing and so concerned in my experience just lacking good information and tools to help !
Hey! I’m William Doyle. I’m a musician and artist and so I feel I’ve seen the effects social media platforms have had on my business and indeed my own mental health, and how the reliance of engagement and visibility on social media has had a severely negative impact on both of those things. I quoted Tristan Harris recently in a series of lectures I was doing about mental health in the music industry, talking about the idea of Intermittent Variable Rewards (the slot machine effect of loading notifications) and how, when you depend on social networks for your business, the addictive design of the apps and other platforms can create a toxic mix. There are also questions of ethics to be raised in my industry’s adaptation to streaming services, and feel that the data of users for targeted engagements are treated in similarly reckless ways on Spotify and Apple Music etc. as they are on Facebook and with Google etc.
I really believe the subject of humane tech and ethical use and design has become an inescapably existential question in regards to how I conduct my art practice and my livelihood as a human being, so it’s heartening to know there is a movement behind advocating better standards for tech usage and integration.
Reality, and the way it is constructed from all of our shared perspectives and beliefs, shaped by our differences and our discourse, is a beautiful thing that is worth cherishing – and defending – from being manipulated by people whose main interest is the next click or the next buck, and whose staggering lack of empathy for other individuals has created this problem in the first place. I’m ready to contribute to a better and more sustainable reality.
Hi, My name is Laura Hill Timpanaro, I’m a contemporary abstract artist based in NYC (Lhillart.com) and the co-creator of #whatisschool one of the longest running and highly cited professional development forums for domestic and international educators. I became involved as my children navigated an educational system being rapidly transformed by technology. As they enter an ever shrinking global community I am concerned with the lack of meaningful real time activity my children engage in and the lack of purpose I see displayed in the pursuits of friends, family and myself, including my own time wasted on-line. I am not a big fan of excessive social media usage or phone addiction. I am offended and outraged by the depths that my personal data is dissected and mined for marketing and other’s financial enrichment. (I spent 20 years developing on-air campaigns for Fortune 500 companies and producing documentaries, I get it.) I’m hoping to use my art and my current campaign of “Faces” brought forth through personal trauma to raise awareness of the effects technology has on society and to advocate the value of personal purpose and real time interactions that foster happiness and well being. I’m looking forward to working with old friends and new friends I haven’t yet met. -Laura
Hi, I am Sachin. I work in IT in Mountain View. I heard Tristan Harris on NPR last year and I could totally relate to this on two levels, both as a victim and also as a mentor pulling that victim out. I had deleted facebook app on the phone long time back because that’s an easy way to get sucked in. I stay in touch with close family / friends through whatsapp mostly and little bit of snapchat to keep some live action and fun sharing going.
Now I see the underlying problem where big corporations want all your screen time. Personally I have given away my screen time to several other apps like checking news, refreshing stock prices, playing Lumosity to beat the earlier best score, or just refreshing email for no reason.
This was victim part of me. But I have been fortunate enough to be mindful of my such patterns and there comes the mentor within me to help. Being an active sports enthusiast and also meditating twice a day mostly would keep me sane and away from screen because of my passion for such things I love to do. But there are times I consciously stay away from screen time. For example I would sometimes not carry a phone when I go for a walk or to a restaurant with my wife. I have also followed some ideas presented here like charging phone in a different room, installed Moment app to track usage, etc.
I really like this movement and would love to help out. I have more ideas and would love to work with the team and spread awareness in any way possible.
Hi there, my name is Bryan Haakman. The problems central to this community are very close to my heart. Over the years I have seen different mediums influence our way of communicating and information consumption in different ways. And of course, it has never been more complex and intriguing as it is in our time. Many of us feel lost in a world with an overflow of information with very little help to stitch together the concepts we encounter.
For the past 1 1/2 years I have been working on an open source project to attempt to create a tool that helps me (and others) to navigate through this increasingly fractured world, to combine and relate concepts we encounter throughout our life. You can find the project here https://github.com/bryanph/GeistMap and a live version here https://geistmap.com.
Hi team! Andrew here, co-founder and CEO at SF-based Siempo, giving people their lives back from smartphone and social media addiction (DM me to play with our beta!). We have long been inspired by Time Well Spent and are deeply grateful for the community’s leadership.
I’m passionate about this space because of personal struggles with digital wellness as a teenager, and motivated by the invitation to consider alternative possibilities in all areas in order to create tech that supports humans being.
Looking forward to sharing stories and notes and exploring how we can co-create. I’m also interested in organizational development and inner work.
I’m Evan and I’m a former teacher, current stay at home mom and online business builder.
I feel like I’ve gone through an awakening of sorts in the last several months and better understand why I was so unhappy with my relationship with my smartphone and facebook.
Now that I’m in this place of awareness and have this online business building experience (it’s not much, but enough to make a website and do other stuff) and teaching experience, I want to help people wake up to the “attention competition” that’s happening all around us on the internet, why it’s damaging, and what they can do to have a better relationship with technology.
Thank you for what you all are doing.
I’m excited as I think this is all going to get so much better as we move forward in our awareness of how technology is affecting us.
I entered Facebook at the very ripe age of 15, 8 years ago. Coming from a village school to a highschool of 1500 people was a big enough change for most teenagers. I entered it at the dawn of FB.
In early adulthood(still there) I became a staple member of the local music industry(no longer here) here in Brisbane(still here). My social life and professional goals allowed me to see the ups and downs of social media, for individuals and small business. In the past 6 months I’ve been thinking heavily of the damage this has done to the youth. I only just preordered Irresistible last night! Now I am finding this beautiful community. I hope to host talks/group sessions brainstorming tactics to lessen your social media usage.
If anyone has started something similar, or has any advice please reply.
I have a motto that is pretty nice. S.E.T
Working towards a future that promotes Sustainability and Equality using the power of Technology.
I have faith developers and engineers will figure this out, but I feel as if a person like me is relatively useful in the discussion too.
Hi Folks,
I’m here to atone after being part of the mobile industry for over 20 years. I want to be part of the solution for creating stronger and warmer communities and a focus on human design thinking in our tech sector.
Caroline
Hi all! My name is Charles Linden, for over two decades now I have created and run the first online, telephone and email mental health recovery organisation. Our web-app recovery portal has helped over 1/4 million people from around the world and our residential and workshop programmes, books and other media has helped millions. I created the first emotional disorder recovery therapy LAR. We create true recovery, but more importantly, and the reason I am here is because I have a unique personal and professional insight into the impact of tech on human wellbeing, both mental and physical. We treat people from 4 to 94 and our team and I have data collected over many tens of thousands of cases, research, experience and a true understanding of the relationship between physical and social evolution, technology and mental health and it terrifies us. This week alone I’ve seen over 20 cases of 4-12 year old’s with tech focused ocd, panic disorder, eating disorders and health anxiety.l, all exacerbated heavily by technology. It’s a catastrophic, far reaching pandemic that effects every aspect and element of society, entire families, organisations and governments will and are buckling under the strain of its impact. The problem is multifaceted and complex but I see it do clearly every day when I wake snd it’s what drives me to bring recovery to all people but especially kids who tolerate the suffering I once did. C
Hello! I’m a product designer, beginning my career in an ad agency working with brands, and had an Aha! moment when my group of friends were in a bar together and noticed us all looking at our first generation iPhones instead of talking to each other and realized persuasion design (and much of what I had been working on in agency), was disrupting and fracturing some these fragile fundamentals of being human, such a connection, presence, and empathy. I’ve since worked for a few startups to bring behavioral health and mindfulness training into a mobile format (2011), and a wearable that recognizes stress in the body and uses biofeedback to calm the sympathetic nervous system.
Im very interested in “tapering technologies” that put the human experience and senses first and try to fade away, ux that revolves around physical and emotional states, and design ethics.