Bored and Unethical

 Hi everyone!!

    Today I am going to be writing about social media in regards to the way it takes away most of our time with the help of Manoush Zomordi's book "Bored and Brilliant". Also, I will be talking about Willams's Designer Code of Ethics and the way social media can be very unethical. 

    I am sure you have heard of a "social detox" before and if you haven't then you are probably very young or you have bad parents (totally kidding). A social detox simply means that you are taking a break from all social media platforms to clear your mind. Social media can be a very stressful place where you are constantly reading into other people's lives and comparing them to your own. Don't get me wrong, social media is also filled with puppies and butterflies but it honestly has become a very dark place over time. In Manoush Zomordi's book "Bored and Brilliant" she comes up with a seven step program that is basically a social detox. 

    The first challenge is "Observe Yourself", meaning you will be tracking your time spent on all of your social media platforms or apps that you use daily. It is important to realize how much time you are spending on social media because your life is much more than looking at a phone screen all day. The second challenge is "Keep Your Devices Out of Reach While in Motion" which entails no walking and texting! I like this challenge because personally I didn't know it would be so hard until I actually did it. You see a lot of people do this too because it is just a natural instinct to pull out your phone when you are casually walking - walking is just SO boring right ;). The third challenge is "Photo-Free Day", meaning that you can not post or look at photos which is honestly a majority of your social media feed. This challenge has been hard for me because that means I can't get on any social media. The fourth challenge is "Delete the App", now if you are going to do any challenge - THIS IS THE ONE. Recently I did this before reading "Bored and Brilliant" with a shopping app that I have because I have a shopping addiction (we love that!). I decided that I was not going to buy ANY Lululemon for the month of February and to do that I needed to delete the app on my phone because it was too easy for me - I also work there so I get a crazy discount which makes it super hard. It was financially the best decision I have made and so far I still have the app deleted off of my phone. The fifth challenge is "Take a Fakeaction" which would mean that you are simply not using your phone for anything other than something that is extremely important - talking to your mom doesn't count ;). The sixth challenge is "Observe Something Else", which implies that you will devote your eyes and time to other things instead of your phone or social media. Lastly, the seventh challenge is "The Bored and Brilliant Challenge" which is where you will use each of these challenges in your daily life and begin setting new goals and aspirations that don't involve staring at a tiny screen all day. 

    As technology and social media continues to develop, our use of phones will continue to grow rapidly each decade. Have you ever been talking about something to a friend and then you check instagram and there is an ad suggested just for you that is EXACTLY what you were talking about on your timeline? We wonder if that is actually a coincidence or if the government is listening to our conversations - FREAKY. I would consider this unethical because it is an invasion of someone's personal conversation and their life in general. James Williams came up with the "Designer's Oath" which is basically a code of conduct for social media. The "Designer's Oath" is promising to "Care, Understand, Align, Respect, Measure, Communicate, and Promote". Something I think Williams's could have added into the oath would be privacy, because in today's society everyone knows your business so fast, and we have social media to thank for that. Something that isn't talked about often is how on some apps or websites you MUST enter in your email and information in order to browse on the app or website, which to me is not ethical at all. This goes along with each of the challenges in "Bored and Brilliant" in a way that social media is always controlling your life. It is time to take back your power and create a life outside of social media and away from the mean, nasty, ugly Internet trolls!

    With that being said, technology and social media is evolving more and more each day. Every time we receive a text or a snapchat notification we immediately check it to see what it says or who it's from, meaning our phones are literally taking over our lives. Challenge yourself to limit the time you spend each day on social media and take CONTROL - I promise it will be the best decision for you.