Overview:
As we take a look at the landscape of social media, paired with the reality of of our generation’s mental health crisis, you’ll see a direct correlation to more alarming effects. What do you do when the technology that was designed for human advancement, brings generations to a recession in their health? Due to the content that ordinary people are exposed to daily, we see statistics that shows the emotional, mental and psychological downturn because of the effects due to this constant exposure. Could their be a remedy for this particular plaguing factor?
Focus:
Research Design
Entrepreneurial Design
Branding
Team:
Tyler Robinson
Bandera Barter
Courtney Beth
Social Media & The Brain
Research shows that our brain has a desire to seek connection and through that connection growth happens. Certain aspects of social media is able to gain specific reaction and neural responses from the brain. The simple ‘like’ button (which is a form of acceptance and approval) can cause the brain to have a greater neural respond that is called a ‘reward circuit’. Sherman Et Al says in the article ‘The power of the like in adolescence: effects of peer influence on neural and behavioral responses to social media’ states that “We previously reported that when young people viewed Instagram photos with many Likes, compared with few, they showed greater responses in brain regions associated with reward and visual attention, and were themselves more likely to click Like.”
While Likes are often provided as an indicator of social support, affiliation or acknowledgement of shared experience, they are frequently used to indicate approval or enjoyment (Hayes et al., 2016). Thus, reward circuitry may be implicated in the provision of Likes because the user is simultaneously viewing an image or piece of information that brings them pleasure.
Social Media & Self perception
During our extensive research, self-image has a primary foot hold on our younger generation. Ranging from age 13 to early 30’s, social media has a great influence on self worth in society. According to ‘dosomething.org’ over 70 percent of girls age 15 to 17 avoid normal daily activities, such as attending school, when they feel bad about their looks. About 20 percent of teens will experience depression before they reach adulthood. 38 percent of boys in middle school and high school reported using protein supplements and nearly 6 percent admitted to experimenting with steroids. 75 percent of girls with low self-esteem reported engaging in negative activities like cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered eating.
Framing the Challenge
We as a collective have come to the understanding that due to social media, the lack of content monitoring, and comparison, our generation is coming to a decline in productivity, self-appreciation and a rise in hate. To frame the challenge, our group collectively created a how might we statement that is designed to tailor our focus on what we as entrepreneurs would like to resolve. Our statement states “How might we use social media to change the views and values of society to be more positive and beneficial to mental health”.
Knowing that technology and it’s advancements will not go away, we are aiming to research the views and values of society through the influence of social media to get to a place where we can positively affect mental health. Unlike other social media apps that promotes negativity for views/ engagement and or mental health apps that have a paywall in order to accessing its full use for maximum effectiveness.
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Empathy Map
Understanding the audience and their perspective, a empathy map was created to begin to shift our perspective on the matter.
Thinks
Thinks social media isn't bad
Why doesn't she look like her social media idol
How can I be more like my social
media idol
Says
“I wish I was that pretty”
“I want to be more like…”
“Why aren’t I where they are”
“OMG I could never”
Does
Scrolls through social media for hours
Heavily edits photos
Wants to be an influencer
Only likes emotionally driven content on social media
Feels
Overwhelmed from negative content
Sad but doesn’t know why
Insecure about who they are compared to others
Persona 1
Youth:
Name: Timmy
Age: 9
Elementary School: Blanco Vista Elementary
Hobbies: Plays football and basketball, video games
Home town: San Marcos Tx
Family size: Raised by his mother and Father, no siblings
Social Media: Instagram, snapchat, b-reel, tiktok, twitch
Thinks: Why can’t he have a sibling? He wants to hang out with his friends. Do people think he is cool?
Acts: Goes on social media to stay connected with his friends. Participates in trending activities. Tries new things to stay relevant
Feels: Wants to feel mutual love in his relationships. Wants to be accepted. Gets excited when he is mentioned on a social media post knowing that everybody will see it
Says: Did you see my twitch stream?
Persona 2
Teenage:
Name: Maria
Age: 15
Social Medias: Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, BeReal
Other Hobbies: Dance, Cheerleading, Volleyball, Model UN, Debate
Family: 2 parent house hold, 1 older brothers and 2 younger sisters
School/Job: Works for families small business when she gets home from school high school
Thinks: They don’t have enough time to do what they want to do.
Acts: Works hard all day and then gets home and spends all their time on social media
Feels: Exhausted, overwhelmed, wishes their life was “easier”
Says: I want to be a lawyer, but I don’t know how
Persona 3
Young Adult:
Name: Brittney
Age: 22
Social Medias: Tiktok, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, BeReal
Other Hobbies: Likes to go out with friends, post on social medias regularly, in the party culture
School/Job: Goes to The University of Texas for Marketing
Thinks: I want to make money through social media. I wish I was as pretty or as skinny as that person. Everything they see online is true.
Feels: Hopeless, Lost in life, Self conscious
Acts: Feels the need to post everything that is going on in their life, overshares online, spends their alone/downtime on social media
Says: I wish I could be different. Can you take a picture of me. Don’t post that picture of me, it’s embarrassing
Research In The Field
77 percent of the participants who took our survey about their social media use were from GenZ. The rising population that will soon be the dominate generation on the planet .
GenZ partook 77% of
the survey
77%
Introduction To
Social Media
71.7 percent of our participants began using social media between the ages of 10-15 years of age. The age of searching for self-worth and identity
71.7% Introduced to social media by the age of 10
71.7%
App Use
Out of our survey, Instagram ranked the heights in app use against seven other top 10 most used apps. Snap Chat second and TikTok third.
88% use Instagram
Phone use
53 percent of our participants use their phone for at least 5-10 hours per-day. During that time, 64.7 percent of them state that they are on social media apps for at least 4 hours of the time. 30.4 percent admits that they are on for at least 5-10 hours at a time per day on social media apps during their phone screen time.
53%
53% use their phones for at least 5 hours a day
64.7%
64.7% use social media for at least 4 hours a day
Mental Health Battle.
Almost half of our survey participants are experiencing some sort of mental health issue. Whether professionally diagnosed or self diagnosed.
48.3% says YES to battling mental health
48.3%
Identifying With
Mental Health
58.6% of people struggle with anxiety, 40.5% claims to deal with depression and 21% struggle with insomnia. With the majority of our participants being GenZ, who fill their day with screen time and social media exposure, who identifies with having a mental health disorder, we can begin to see the effects of what content can do to heighten their state dysfunctionality.
58.6% of people identify with anxiety
Redirecting how we connect
With a pre-existing app known as ‘BeReal’ that is known for pushing its users to keeping it ‘real’ by showcasing what people are doing on the spot. The app pushes a notification to their users everyday once a day at a random time of the day, directing them to take a photo of what they are doing in that moment. This takes away from the editing, the photo manipulation, perfecting aspect of content and giving people the raw and real.
While this app has its agenda of debunking the make-up of content, we aim to extending the overall goal by adding an extension to the app. Our additive will be known as ‘Captures’. Here is where we will take our stand by implementing five new features that will help people gain back power over their mental health, experience life away from the screen and creating a story that’s worth telling.
Captures are the future
BeReal Capture is designed to help get people away from their phone screens and encourages their users to go out and capture something that’s real. Whether it’s hiking with friends, reading their favorite books or even trying something new. Capture’s underling mission is helping people understand that life is more than a screen. Do more and compare less. Keeping it real with real life experiences. With these five new aspects, we hope to relieve mental health four our generations and abroad.
Capture Additive 1
Capture time
‘Capture time’ is a new feature that allows BeReal to shutdown the top 5 apps that the user uses most frequently including their own. This feature is aimed to take their users attention away from their top distractions and redirect them to a more productive action to promote a moment of a mental health break.
During their ‘Capture Time’ BeReal will send a notification during your adventure for you to take a picture of the moment and will automatically upload to their BeReal thread once the Capture Time has ended. Capture Time can last up to three hours of hands free social media for the user.
Capture Additive 2
Capture Map
‘Capture Map’ is a feature that gives the users options to explore their area during capture mode based upon their personal preferences through data collection. This feature updates wherever the user is to ensure that the best adventures are available. Each place that is suggested shows previous BeReal Capture moments from different people to showcase the fun to spark the users interest to get out and explore.
Capture Additive 3
Capture
Capture is a new feature in the BeReal app that allows the audience to see the moments captured by others while they were in their Capture mode. This mode keeps the moment even more real as people adventure out during their time away from their screen.
Capture Additive 4
Suggestions
Suggestions mode in the BeReal app shows the user all of the previous suggestions BeReal has given to the user. These suggestions are things that the app suggests to the user based off of collected data based on the user that will benefit the user during capture mode. These suggestions are aiming to get the user involved in activities that will pull them away from their devices and enjoy their time away from their screen.
Capture Additive 5
App Compatibility
With the BeReal Capture update, BeReal will be able to be compatible with other apps whose aim is geared towards productivity and adventure. This will allow BeReal to collect surface level data that can be pushed through notifications as content to help the user be more productive and promote mental health.
App Compatibility
BeReal Capture app capability notifications are an easy way to bring suggestions to their audience about what to do during their Capture Time. Getting into activities that’s keeping it real. What will you do during your Capture Time?