For my physical outcome I plan to have a screen based application or video demonstrating 'Unhappy Places'. I originally thought about doing as a continuation of my studio brief project 'Happy Places', another app relating less to meditation but more mental health, but I feel now this would be too similar as it would include meditation techniques and have the same overall aim, to create a sense of calm. Therefore I want to test out the complete opposite, through research into screen based applications throughout my essay I plan to simulate what makes someone uncomfortable, what it would be that's damaging to mental health. Social anxieties, innate fears of animals, sounds and so on can be simulated in order to test what it is that puts people in an 'Unhappy Place'.
To understand this I need to evaluate what makes people uncomfortable, unhappy, paranoid, scared and so forth.
Essay & Outcome Data Collection
I want to interview people with these questions which are relevant to both my physical and written outcome, although I feel I will need to formulate some more specific questions for my physical outcome for more innate fears as well as socially constructed anxieties and so on:
Interview/ Questionnaire
What is your biggest fear?
How often do you check your phone?
How do you feel when you get a 'like/ share/ favourite'?
How do you feel when a social media post is ignored/ gets little or no attention?
How many hours of sleep do you usually get?
How long do you play on your phone before you sleep?
Playing video games/ app based games that contain violence, what is your overall mood during and after the game?
Creative Explorations Technique (Gauntlett, 2007)
Having played violent games for half an hour please draw your current emotions.
Having played non-violent games for half an hour please draw your current emotions.
Research
I was originally going to use the book but upon finding this article I thought would be more appropriate as it contains elements of social media, a social media consultants perspective which I feel is more valuable than that from the book as it was heavily focused on technologies not so accessible, these being Virtual Reality devices which were administered by medical staff. Although there was some fascinating data collection from tests that were ran through simulations in order to gage how this emerging technology could help aid the progression of treating mental health disorders.
This article focuses far more on the epidemic of anxiety which is much more relevant to Millennials as social media under this umbrella of screen based applications has contributed a great deal to the rise in paranoia often leading to anxiety disorders.
Prozac Nation is Now the United States of Xanax- Article in the New York Times by Alex Williams June 10th 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/style/anxiety-is-the-new-depression-xanax.html
GAMES
"Consider the fidget spinner...Originally marketed as a therapeutic device to chill out children with anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism, these colorful daisy-shaped gizmos have suddenly found an unlikely off-label use as an explosively popular toy"
"The fidget spinner is nothing but nervous energy rendered in plastic and steel, a perfect metaphor for the overscheduled, overstimulated children of today"
ANXIETY
"This past winter, Sarah Fader, a 37-year-old social media consultant in Brooklyn who has generalized anxiety disorder, texted a friend in Oregon about an impending visit, and when a quick response failed to materialize, she posted on Twitter to her 16,000-plus followers. “I don’t hear from my friend for a day — my thought, they don’t want to be my friend anymore,” she wrote, appending the hashtag #ThisIsWhatAnxietyFeelsLike."
"According to data from the National Institute of Mental Health, some 38 percent of girls ages 13 through 17, and 26 percent of boys, have an anxiety disorder...
Meanwhile, the number of web searches involving the term has nearly doubled over the last five years according to Google Trends."
"Generation Y has also suffered from the low-level anxiety that comes from failing to meet expectations. Thus the invention of terms like “quarter-life crisis” and “FOMO” (“fear of missing out,” as it is fueled by social media apps like Instagram)"
SEX/ BODY IMAGE
"Sexual hedonism no longer offers escape; it’s now filtered through the stress of Tinder. “If someone rejects you, there’s no, ‘Well, maybe there just wasn’t chemistry …,’” Jacob Geers, a 22-year-old in New York who works in digital sales, said. “It’s like you’re afraid that through the app you’ll finally look into the mirror and realize that you’re butt ugly,” he added."
POLITICS
“Controlled neurosis” is the common characteristic of most “highly successful entrepreneurs,” according to Mr. Trump (or Tony Schwartz, his ghostwriter) in the 1987 book “The Art of the Deal.”
"Indeed, Mr. Trump is the first politician in world history whose preferred mode of communication is the 3 a.m. tweet — evidence of a sleepless body, a restless mind, a worrier."
Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal pg11 - statistics
GAMES "Relevant statistics from the Entertainment Software Association's annual study of game players- the largest and most widely respected market research report of it's kind:
69% of all heads of household play computer and video games
97% of youth play computer and video games
40% of all gamers are women
One out of four gamers is over the age of fifty
The average game player is thirty-five years old and has been playing for twelve years.
Most gamers expect to continue to play games for the rest of their lives."
"ARGs (alternate reality games) are designed to make it easier to generate the four intrinsic rewards we crave- more satisfying work, better hope of success, stronger social connectivity, and more meaning- whenever we can't or don't want to be in a virtual environment... they pick one very specific of our personal lives and try to improve it. Others have quite audacious goals, involving entire communities or society at large: for example, to reinvent public education as we know it, to help players discover their true purpose in life, or even to improve our experience of death and dying." pg125
"Born 1990 and later- ... know what extreme, positive activation feels like, and when they're not feeling it they're bored and frustrated... it's a lot harder to function in low-motivation, low feedback and low challenge environments when you've grown up playing sophisticated games." pg127
ANXIETY /DEPRESSION
"Either I'm going to kill myself or turn this into a game...I knew right away it needed to be a multiplayer game. I'd been having a lot of trouble explaining to my closest friends and family how truly anxious I was and how depressed I felt... I also felt awkward and embarrassed asking for help."
"First: stay optimistic, set goals, and focus on any positive progress you make. Second: get support from friends and family. And third: learn to read your symptoms like a temperature gauge."
"SuperBetter is a super-hero themed game that turns getting better into a multiplayer adventure." Pg 133-135
"Social psychologists have long observed that one of the hardest things about a chronic injury or illness is asking our friends and family for support... but reaching out ... prevents social isolation."
Pg137
"Within two weeks of playing Jane the Concussion Slayer, my symptoms were improved by roughly 80 percent... I suffered a great deal less during the recovery as a direct result of the game... When my allies joined the game I finally felt like they really understood."Pg 140/1
"An alternate reality... game can better prepare us to deal with that reality." pg 141
"Positive phycologist Martin Seligman explains that "the pervasive belief that happiness is inauthentic is a profound obstacle"... happiness activities will need to be embedded in a ... package." pg 185
"Happiness hacking is the experimental design practice of translating positive psychology research findings into game mechanics." pg 188
Involves 'Unlocking the Kindness of Strangers (express gratitude and practice acts of kindness), Playing Our Respects (remembering death easier and more rewarding), Activating the Dance Secret (endorphins combine with oxytocin... what we feel when we 'loose ourselves').' pg 207
Technology In Mental Health - Applications In Practice, Supervision and Training by Stephen Goss, Kate Anthony, LoriAnne Sykes Stretch, DeeAnna Merz Nagel, (2016)
ONLINE THERAPY
"The term online therapy is a broad-reaching term that describes any means of delivering mental health services via the internet. It includes video conferencing, audio conferencing, chat-room or instant messaging, and secure email dialogues between client and therapist." Pg16 Kathleene Derrig-Palumbo
"The primary concern regarding the identity of the therapist is centered on how the consumer can be certain that he or she is meeting with an actual licensed mental health provider." Pg 17 Kathleene Derrig-Palumbo
"Young adults... used to communicating via the written word, predominantly by using mobile texting, computer instant messaging chat rooms, blogs and social networks.. online therapy for the younger generation shapes up to be a natural assumption." Pg23 Kathleene Derrig-Palumbo
SOCIAL MEDIA
"Americans spend 7.6 hours a month using social media" and "63% of American Facebook users log on to the site daily" (Whiteman, 2014) "Pg 43 Allison Thompson
search engines & therapy
"By learning about their mental health concern, the individual becomes an informed and educated patient one that can play a more active and engaged role in the transformative process (Khin-Kyemon, 2013). Valuable therapy time can be used to focus on the client's individual needs and issues, rather than in explaining basic components of mental illness or its treatment."
BLOGGING
"Blogging may also be used as a form of journal writing or self-help intervention therefore teaching the client about the effects of posting information into cyberspace can be critical (Nagel & Anthony, 2009)."
"There are, however, groups on the internet that help provide a great deal of information and support for committing suicide, anorexic food intake control, self-harm methods, and similar disturbing topics. So while the potential for good is far greater than harm, the implications of consuming online health information remains a legitimate concern that should be addressed." Pg 78
SLEEP
https://sleep.org/articles/ways-technology-affects-sleep/
