Project Brief

The wave of social media provided a way to stay connected. A medium to connect with those that are not around us all the time. It seemed like an outlet to close the gap between families that live across the country or the globe. However, we have seen a decline in actual human and social interaction.

Most of us have experienced seeing a family at a restaurant where each member of the family has a different device at hand. Mom is sharing a picture of her meal and family time on Instagram. Dad is keeping up with new/sports updates, the daughter is sharing multiple filtered selfies on Snapchat, and the brother is zoned out with YouTube videos.

Social Media has become a medium for keeping up with the Joneses, showing a facade of a perfect life. A Life filled with filters and happy quotes. They might seem like the perfect family, BUT are they equally connected as a family, or are they more connected to their devices and social media profiles?

Goal

Provide a visual tool that would allow families to physically connect and interact so they can see their own behavior and gain awareness of their social media and device usage. I want families to arrive at insights of their own by having a visual aid that allows them to see how their day to day device and social media habits impacts their ability to connect with their family members.

Inspirations

Process

Audience

In order for this visual aid to work it needs to be a practice that is done within a family unit. This is an opportunity for parents and children to see how much time they spend online vs. offline.

Infants: <1
Children: <18, <11 or K - 7th grade
Teens: 12-17 or 7th-12th grade
Adults: 18+
Elderly: 65+

Survey

As part of this process, it was important to research social media usage and screen time among parents and children. It helped me understand the impact of screen time and social media has on the family dynamic. This survey was used to supplement data sources from Pew Research, Statistica, YouGov, Time to Log Off, etc.

Medium

The final product would be physical habit trackers that would allow each family member to track their day to day social media, productivity, family activities, etc.

Using a physical tracking mechanism will allow families to step away from the screens. We don't need anything app for that. Instead, they can physically and visually see how each member of their family is doing in terms of being an active member of the family dynamic.

This tracker would be available through some of the box subscriptions available for family members including, (tweens, teens, and adults.)