Purpose of proposed investigation
1. A worry that human intelligence may be in decline: Research in Norway and UK shows that IQ test scores have been slowly dropping over the past several decades. It is speculated that it could be caused by environment factors or the digital culture: over-use and over-reliance on smart devices
2. Develop a healthy society for future generations To develop good mental health and maintain healthy social relationships. Scientific research shows cognitive build up is crucial in early years of child development
My preliminary studies show 1. a growing increase in smart devices penetration among children and 2. adults are developing a growing reliance on smart devices
The need to address this topic is urgent in today’s context, with the growing concern over seismic shift in jobs with automation to how the addictive use of technology devices have changed social skills, cultural values, communication and behaviours.
Research Design:
Progress and Growth
(Ravishly, 2014)
Progress and Growth
There has been a strong debate over technology being a double-edged sword. It is a controversial topic concerning culture, social, education, design, business and economy. Technology has been seen to be benefitting humanity since the age of civilisation. The invention of machinery came about in the early 18th century with steam engines and became widely used during the 1st Industrial revolution. Soon it became a phase of rapid industrialization in the late 19th century, it’s also known as the Technological revolution in the sectors of transportation, manufacturing, construction and communication. Fast forward to 20th century, the Digital revolution began; it was the shift from mechanical and analogue to digital electronics, with the use of digital computers, cellular phone and internet. From oral culture to print, print to electric and electric to electronic, technology has changed the nature of human behaviours and memory.
Humans are biologically programmed to create habits to survive, this has given us the advantage to be at the top of the evolutionary food chain over other animals. Darwinian evolutionary theory has been re-interpreted to become evolution of natural selection for human society in late 19th century, also known as Social Darwinism. It challenges the view that the logic of discovery in the natural sciences, in other words, induced parallel or derivative concepts in the social sciences and that the "survival of the fittest" emerged first as a natural, and then mutated into a social concept. (Claeys, 2000) Due to high population and limited resources, humans sought to improve the economic structure of society in order to survive. This drove an endless pursuit of change as humans wanted progress. Some people wanted to get out of class struggles, some people had to uphold their cultural values such the Asian concepts of ‘face’ and ‘honour’, some people had responsibilities to families and simply had to sustain their livelihood. Due to the survival competition, tensions and insecurities are formed. This creates a sense of urgency to achieve and excel. Adaptation and growth becomes a norm, a necessity of life. It resulted in social conformity and expectations to achieve and wanting the best. As civilisation progresses, people became determined to seek for productivity and pursue efficiency in order to achieve the best results in the shortest time, this also helps them to save energy, efforts, money and materials.
Information age
The Digital revolution also marked the beginning of Information age, which began around 1970s. With the swift evolution of digital devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones through design and innovation, people were able to access information and knowledge easily. People began to develop an insatiable desire for changes, they are drawn to the new and novel, to the things and trends that provide a feeling of progress and they end up never feeling satisfied or contented. The concept of dialectical materialism can be used to describe this phenomenon. Human behaviour never arises in a void, but originates, forms, and develops within the boundaries of this 'material reality’ (Williams, 1997).
People are constantly on a chase to fill gaps of insecurities, insecurities could be fear of losing jobs or fear of not being or having the best because of losing face or disappointing self or letting family down. Because of these reasons, they are driven to achieve and because of their drive, they bring about change, transformation and competence in technology breakthroughs and design innovations. With new innovations, come the existence of opposing social forces and actions of others wanting to challenge and counter these new innovations. The tension and collision will result in growth, a new change or a new product. This synthesis will become the new innovation and once again provoke new opposing social forces that will result in another synthesis to challenge and the cycle goes on. The material environment and human behaviour are in a constant process of reciprocal motion and change (Reese, 1998) Because of this never-ending revolution, humans will continue to evolve and the market never ceases to develop.
We are now moving into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, introduced by Schwab in 2015 in the article in Foreign Affairs, where technology becomes embedded within societies. With technology offering an easy way out, human’s ingrained obsession to be first in the line of modernity and them being biologically programmed to seek achievement and convenience, this endless pursuit of efficiency results in over-dependence on our digital devices.
In the animal kingdom, natural selection ensures that only the strongest of the species survive. A competitive marketplace applies the same logic to firms. When it comes to human beings everyone should get an equal opportunity to prove him or herself based on merit. (Vukovic, 2012).
Meritocracy is practised as a key principle of governance in many developed countries, especially in Singapore where the philosophy is instilled at a very young age and citizens compete for the best of everything. The concept is grounded in the belief that its economy rewards the most talented and innovative. Individuals who rise to the top are supposed to be the most capable of driving organizational and economic performance. (Goodman & Kaplan, 2018).
Conspicuous signs of meritocratic success (wealth, possessions, and social mobility) can ignite ambitions to rise above one's station in life by working harder and more resourcefully than one might have otherwise. (Tan, 2008). Meritocracy depends on performance and this has pushed citizens to embark on an endless pursuit of change and progress, as they strive to be consistently ahead to avoid falling behind in this fast changing economy.
Long working hours have resulted in less leisure time. This compels people to maximise their time. To achieve work-life balance, productivity and self-fulfilment, more people are adopting the use of smart mobile devices for efficiency.
Culture
People have been depending on society and culture around them for a long time. Culture consists of language, aesthetics, values, attitudes, education, social organization and material culture. As culture is a way of life and is learned and inherited through interaction and socialization, it affects interpretations of behaviour. When digital revolution came about, it was adopted by people as a means of efficiency. Asian governments were quick to recognise the importance of technological development to power their regions. They have been implementing digital initiatives in different sectors from economy to education. The region’s rapid economic growth and its youthful and increasingly well-educated populace have catalysed the adoption, consumption, appropriation and production of digital media content and new technology. (Lim, Soriano, 2016) In this age of innovation, technology is affecting cultural values, and one of it being the relationship between people. With digital social networks and media platforms, more and more people choose to communicate online instead of in person, this may result in isolation, lack of social interaction and loss of empathy. Technology provides the illusion of companionship and comfort at the expense of authentic emotions and conversations, which is the foundation of meaningful relationships. Ramifications of distancing can be profound for social and communication cultures, relationships aren’t built as strong as there is less familiarity, trust and love.
With easy access to the internet, material culture has also evolved. People have the ease of convenience to purchase products online with just a few clicks, causing potential social and self-destruction. It has transformed instant gratification into an addiction for people to indulge. Material possessions and wealth become more important to people than spiritual and intellectual goals and values. People are obsessed with shopping and acquiring stuff, they have a materialistic attachment to possessions. Consumers buy these items often so as to keep up with trends, and are constantly looking to upgrade the quality of products and services. (Baker, 2016)
On top of that, Asian cultural concepts such as guanxi (connections) and mianzi (face) also fuel the now-culture of ego, impatience and obsession. Now in the 21st century, new social media platforms promote interconnectedness and immediacy and people crave to stay wired for constant connection and pleasure. Even though people have become quick to access and scan information that helps them, they often lack the ability to make sense of it, internalise or to use it appropriately. Over-reliance on technology is creating culture gaps, in terms of values, traditions, communication and consumption. To further understand this situation, the important cultures to study for the framework of digital dementia would be (a) material and consumer cultures – how people consume, (b) communication culture – how have people changed the way they communicate, (c) individualisation culture – how social conformity, face, self and ego affect, and lastly, (d) digital culture – the good, the bad and the balance between the two.
Research gaps
As digital dementia is a relatively new diagnosis, the effects on people are not extensively measured, it is mostly speculated in theory and covered in journals and articles. There is a lack of research of effects on the seemingly affected audience in the long run, is it only affecting the digital immigrants (Generation X) and digital pioneers (Generation Y)? How are we sure that the digital natives (Generation Z) are affected with this problem since they grew up with Technology and maybe, they are able to adapt? Various brain and health researchers such as Byun Gi-Won and Jill Eckersley have done preliminary investigation on the potential negative consequences of such behaviour for the human brains. Brain researcher, Gerald Hüther states that brain development is related to our experiences in life. Modern technology use and overuse of mobile electronics and the internet may alter the development of our brains and cause an early onset of dementia. Unbeknownst to most of us, we gradually train ourselves to use our cognitive capacity less and less. As we increasingly hand our thinking over to technology, we lose the advantage we have honed over thousands of years that has placed us at the top of the evolutionary food chain above other animals. When technology does all the work and soon, no one is going to exist who can practice many skills. (McCullen, 2018)
It is not far fetched to think that we are slowly losing the skills we have honed over thousands of years – self-reflection, problem-solving, critical thinking, introspection and consciousness. Technology has undoubtedly advanced society on a broad scale. The creation of the internet has connected the world in a way that was impossible before and technological advancements in medicine have saved millions of lives. Given the magnitude of these enhancements, it is easy to overlook the negative impacts technology can have on our lives and mental health. (Connolly, 2018) Technology may have obvious benefits to humans but there should be guidelines to make the best use of it.
The role of design is to mediate problems, introduce ways on how to shape the future and empower change to help communities. On top of the basic responsibilities of creating useful products and proposing effective solutions, designers should also take note of unwitting acts of destruction involved in designing. Tony Fry has shared that no art of creation can avoid also being an act of destruction. In this information era, technology evolves rapidly, innovation is encouraged for advancement of society and design helps to add value and accessibility. The combined outcome of all three components has created products that are irresistible for the people and the products become indispensable in their everyday lives. GPS and mobile phones help to offload tasks and allow us to outsource memory and allow the devices to do more and more remembering for them, sacrificing deep processing and imagination. “Take Google Maps or Waze. On the one hand, they amplify human ability — you are able to reach your destination faster and more easily. But at the same time, you are shifting the authority to the algorithm and losing your ability to find your own way.” - Yuval Noah Harari (McCullen, 2018)
In the course of design innovation, elimination takes place at the same time. By introducing an all-rounded smartphone, there is a net reduction of eliminating two or more existing products – people don’t have to buy actual alarm clock, point and shoot camera, external gps devices, scanners, calculators, maps, TV, etc. A city can eliminate the need for umbrellas with covered sidewalks or winter coats with underground passageways between buildings. Public transport systems eliminate cars, and vice versa. (Tonkinwise, 2013) By relying on mobile phones, Internet and technology, people are actually eliminating the need of deep processing and use of memory. Design has the power to eliminate and replace, shift behaviours and create new habits thus, as designers, we need to be mindful of what is taken away when a new product presents itself, it may enable us to have an easier life but we could be sabotaging ourselves in the process. Studies show we risk designing products that can potentially cause us to feel depressed, feel isolated, negatively impact our elections or accuse us of creating generations of narcissists. (Madray, 2017)
Future Cities Concept - Dragonfly: Vertical Farming in New York City - Self-sustaining Ecosystem with Renewable Energy (Vincent Callebaut)
Design themes I’m looking at both Citizen Designer and Future Identities to situate my research topic. Society embraces technology because it is the only way to sustain evolution. However it also comes with negative effects and it cannot be separated from the positive elements, it is also ‘un-sustaining’ us at the same time, as our brains become less introspective. I believe all citizens will have to change the system together as a collective group as it is a social issue. With the deterioration of our cognitive abilities, we may be losing what is making us human. By analysing the severity of tech-dependency, actions can be taken to improve our communities, affect mindful change, address tech-reliance issues and encourage social responsibility of technology usage.
For Future Identities, I’m imagining a world that the society does not do enough to tackle their over-reliance on technology and it leads to humans becoming obsolete, desensitised or dehumanised. I’m speculating the increasing tension between humans and AI. How future cities, future social settings, future services and future human interaction are going to be affected. It’s already happening now with the rise of automation, where robots are ‘replacing’ elderly cleaners, and self-ordering kiosks reduces human interaction. In the event that we lose our cognitive abilities and robotics become self-evolved, how are we going to manage them? Are there any design solutions to bridge this interaction? Skills inoculate us from being replaced by computers and robots, so can complacent humans catch up with their degenerated cognitive abilities and skills which they haven’t been using or training in time to come? My research aims to create awareness and develop systems to tackle the problem, methodologies may require disciplines such as filmmaking, programming and game design.
Interdisciplinary practices
Looking into disciplines outside of design is essential for this complex research topic. It is important to learn more about psychology to study human mind and their behaviours so as to understand and explain motivations in order to predict and better ‘control’ mental processes. It may be useful to zoom into Cognitive Psychology for deeper research into memory, attention, problem-solving and creativity. Another discipline is Sociology, this is for better analysis of social behaviour through the study of society and to understand contemporary concepts such as acceptance and social change relating to culture of everyday life, interaction and patterns of relationships. Sociology investigates social causes and consequences of personal lives and communities, this can help me understand their experiences, perspectives, material culture, cultural behaviours and beliefs. Lastly, to develop applications using design and technology in creative and mindful ways, I will have to look into Information Technology to understand information technologies and its relationship with the world. With the study of these disciplines, I hope to develop a better understanding of the forces and connections between human and technology. The outcomes of my research seek to impact human behaviours, education and ergonomics.
Design economy
In order to develop processes and strategies for this problem, some stakeholders to examine include (a). Governments: Many are moving into a digital culture for efficiency, convenience, sustainability, stronger economy and conserving resources, (b) Institutions: They demand productivity and expect multi-tasking which drives a fast pace of life and (c) Communities: People and families that are seeking for work life balance and happiness. Every single process and plan made by governments or schools or companies or individuals is to streamline processes, they simplify things and make it more effortless by incorporating technology and innovation. Building awareness is the first step and strategy. When society recognises that mental skills are crucial and is the key to inoculate us from computers, AI and robotics, they will realise that our dependence on technology is stripping us of our daily training of mental skills and they may start taking action to reinforce social values. For starters, the society needs to foster skills in creativity, empathy, critical thinking, self-control and artistic expression.
Design value
The role as a designer is to look at social issues, focus on change making and drive social innovation. After analysing digital dementia and understanding that its underlying complications stem from social science, it is my responsibility to identify and zoom into what needs to be changed and look into the aspects for possible mediation; it could be addressing the effects, introducing new guidelines, tweaking the processes, influencing the people’s behaviours or changing the nature of the problem altogether. In Lin’s 2017 article, ‘Debate over double-edged sword of technology’, Dr Spela Mocnik, a sociologist at the Singapore University of Technology and Design's Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC) said that we should ensure technology works for society and not the other way round. The value of addressing this problem and preventing a growing crisis of digital dementia will be beneficial for communities on a global scale. It is essential to highlight the importance of social science going hand in hand with technology with new guidelines in place.
References
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