An exploration Into the positive and negative impacts of constant technology & media exposure in our modern society
This endeavor, an exploration into the positive and negative impacts of constant technology and media exposure, entails a quizzical 40 page research paper, created for the Oakland University Honors College. This formal paper assesses the electronic tools we use each and every day, and whether the direction they are taking us in is ideal or harmful. It studies the psychology behind identity development in adolescence and how modern technology/media access influence this development, as well as mental, physical, and environmental detriments of our technological "utopia". This project also analyzes the positive benefits that the internet has given our society, like heightened communication, it functions as a learning tool, and it helps to maintain relationships. The main goal of my design thesis was to find a way to compact this large amount of information into deliverables that are simplified, trustworthy and promote engagement. This project was then expanded in tune with my Graphic Design major’s senior thesis, in which this research paper was transformed into “The TechNo Project” an organizational effort to introduce adolescents to these ideas, and advocate for media literacy programs that properly educate young minds on how to navigate this increasingly complicated world of tech through the use of animation, illustration, and organizational branding techniques.
The 21st century has overseen the major expansion of an innumerable number of industries, advancements, and overall understanding of a vast number of educational branches of thought. As the human species evolves to more complicated ways of living, seemingly dominating the once primal understanding of the world, we gain both a more abundant and confused perspective of life. Technological advancement has introduced an entirely new way of living, and as it eases the burdens of many tedious aspects of society, it completely changes the narrative surrounding human behavior and identity.
The world has evolved in almost all aspects in relation to how the ordinary population of civilians exist within it. As citizens come to terms with the constant advancement surrounding business, industrial, economic, and entertainment practices, it’s crucial to understand the impact of these changes in a psychological and sociological scope. This project strives to understand the deeper influences enacted by 21st century advancements to decipher if their influence on society is beneficial or detrimental in the long term.
The primary purpose of this paper was to examine media, technology, and the internet’s effect on a person’s mental and physical wellbeing, as well as their overall safety regarding their reliance on these products. Several facets were explored, including mental health, cybercrime, physical health, sustainability, cyber-bullying, affectation of binge drinking, and more to properly assess if these things get perpetuated or solved by our society’s technology usage.
Process
This project was created with the intention of investigating how design can depict the relationship between the internet and technology with young minds during their developmental years, to showcase both the benefits and potential long-term mental, cognitive, physical, psychological, and environmental consequences of heightened media and tech reliance.
With the target audience primarily being younger-aged individuals, such as pre-teens, teenagers, and young adults, it was important to condense this extensive research and data into a medium that can be easily accessed. Fun colors and simplistic designs were implemented to keep the subject matter fun and light, while still getting an important message across to audiences.
Our goal was enacted through a short animated motion graphic that boils down the research into a few key points that serve as a reminder to stay aware of how much power we give to automated tools that have seemingly taken over our world in many different aspects. The main goal of the TechNo Project is to spread awareness, which is why a shortened video was created to serve as an advertisement. The artistic elements of the project, such as logo, mascot, color palette and branding features serve to lighten the impact of the message, and turn a difficult topic into a valuable source of education. Although designed with younger audiences in mind, this organization strives to bring heightened awareness to all people throughout every level of society, to enforce the idea that technology is a beneficial tool, not an answer to all of our problems.
The font style was chosen to remain clean, simple, and clear without distracting from the message. The title typeface, BDPlakatbau, serves to incite the spirit of modernism with its defined features that promote readability. The palette uses colors that have a dual-purposed meaning, one half of the colors remaining light, bright, and airy, with the other colors remaining darker. This balance between the two opposites represents the push and pull relationship of technology versus the real, natural world. The branding elements of the TechNo Project serve to create a bond with the viewers, and to teach an important lesson that has a tremendous impact on our future.
Goals
This informational research project takes an all-encompassing look to assess the true scope of how technology and media can affect the developing mind. It begins by comparing the work of historic psychologists like Carl Rogers, Erick Erickson, Jean Piaget, and more to truly understand what constitutes identity formation, as well as the specific elements that help maintain this stage of psychological and cognitive development. This scope is used to determine what aspects are affected, changed, or skewed by the omnipresent exposure to the online world. The project can mainly be broken down into a few primary categories with relative subsets of information, such an overall technological analysis, how our safety is challenged or asserted by technology, the impact on cognition during early development, and the wide range of mental health factors. These four categories serve as a wide overview of the multitude of societal elements that get intensified by media, technology, and the internet. This paper then divulges into how public opinion shapes our worldview, and how the unverified stream of information, disinformation, and untrustworthy sources can severely impact a young adult’s perspective of the world. To finish, this project analyzes how to move forward despite these complications in an advantageous way.
The main consensus found was that overall technology has many positive traits, such as increasing communication, connecting us with other parts of the world, fostering healthy relationships, as well at automizing several features of professional, clinical, or educational fields that create ease and modernization. The main issue found wasn’t the tech itself, but our relationship with it and overreliance to its benefits. Many of the ideas the technological “utopia” promises are, in reality, counterproductive to a sustainable society. Our main task is to find a way to redirect these promising tools to promote sustainability, education, equity and equality surrounding social classes, differences among people, wealth, and overall treatment, as well as focusing their usage to empower traits such as confidence, ethics, empathy, critical thinking, moral discourse, and psychological understanding. Technology has a plethora of beneficial uses that can greatly advance society as we know it, but we can’t let the awe of modern innovation distract us from the fact that technology has equal opportunities to harm our society if we aren’t careful about how we rely on this tool. You can’t solve a problem if you aren’t aware of it, and this project is meant to bring attention to the power that technology and media hold over us, so that we can move forward in a way that is beneficial to all citizens.
Video Credits:
Pexels: Altaf Shah, Nikolai Lapshin, Melike Benli, Max Avans, Sami Aksu, Kelly L, Shubham Prakash, MART PRODUCTION, Oleg Magni, 84LENS, Ilya klimenko, Timyong D.
Audio: Spirit Blossom by RomanBelov, Rain Forest sleep by NaturesEye