'Make Use Of' Page - Smartphones Are Ruining Our Lives

I have come across an extremely informative and interesting web-page, which I think relates to my project perfectly. It is about how smartphones are ruining people's lives - however I think this could relate to smartphones or tablets such as iPads. 



This page has been written by Dave Parrack, and covers in detail many important points of using a smartphone and explains how smartphones may be ruining your life or has the capacity to do that in the future.

Barrack explains how smartphones are firstly harming human relationships - people would rather spend their time interacting through their phones (email, text, messaging services, social networks) than actually connecting to people in person.

Also, how people are living their lives through a camera lens - smartphones generally have good camera quality and real photography cameras are being ditched due to how phones are constantly in users' hands ready to take a photo or video at any moment instead of living the occasion in real life.

More points Dave Barrack makes includes: how smartphones are dominating people's free time and how they encourage oversharing of things via social networks and the internet. Also getting away from everything else like a desktop computer but not a smartphone, as it is handy and accessible at all times and lastly how people rely far too much on them.

This page is concluded with a message to smartphone users to be aware of how this technology can affect your life.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/smartphones-ruining-life/

Proposal Form - Version 2

This is the second version of my proposal form which I have submitted today. 

I have taken all of the feedback from David on board and adapted my proposal form slightly. I feel as though I have covered the feedback points given and used my meeting with David to my advantage to submit my proposal with a more definitive idea as to how I will answer my research question and what research methods I will use, to then create my final outcome which is my campaign.

I will be solely basing my project around smartphones and tablets and how they affect social interaction and changes in human behaviour. I will mainly be looking at negative changes as I will be highlighting how we do not have physical social interaction as much as we do through a device, as well as how people are using their smartphone or tablet to do things which they should be physically doing themselves. 

An example of this would be how one may use their smartphone or tablet to order their shopping online instead of physically going out to the shop to do their shopping - which could be seen as positive or negative but I will be pointing out the negative sides to these things and by doing things like this on a technological device how it can begin to affect people's health and behaviour.

Daily Mail Article - Modern Technology

Neuroscientist Susan Greenfield has written an article for the Daily Mail expressing how modern technology is affecting who we are, what we do and how we behave. This article is extremely relevant to my topic and focuses on how the human brain is under threat from the modern world.





Greenfield goes in to detail about how our electronic devices involve dangers which are gradually coming in to play. Whilst there are benefits from technical progression, there are also negative influences on the brain, including video games, the internet, wireless networks such as bluetooth and many more.

Susan Greenfield also states that electronic devices can affect our personality, behaviour and also characteristics - which is in fact altering our human identity. An example of this is attention spans becoming shorter, personal communication skills are reduced and there is a marked reduction in the ability to think creatively and abstractly. 

As this article is written by a neuroscientist it is very detailed and explains how this technology is affecting humans from a scientifical point of view. It relates extremely well to my topic and research question.

This article has been adapted from Susan Greenfield's book called ID: The Quest for Meaning in the 21st Century.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-565207/Modern-technology-changing-way-brains-work-says-neuroscientist.html

NHS Page - Mobile Phone Safety

After browsing various pages on the internet regarding effects of using smartphones / mobile phones in particular, I came across a page on the NHS website about the safety of mobile phones - which relates to the idea of technology causing harm and negativity to users.





The above paragraph has been taken from the relevant page and is the introduction to the whole page. It is a fact with a statistic which is a way of shocking the reader and enticing them to continue reading. 

This page explains how concerns have been expressed that frequent exposure to radio waves through mobile phones can increase the risk of health implications such as cancer.

This page also gives a brief list of points to advise how to be safe whilst driving and being in possession of a mobile phone - such as 'if you need to use your mobile phone, stop in a safe place'. Car users should know it is illegal to use a phone whilst driving, so the points are there to remind people to use their phones safely. 

Overall this is a brief page which highlights certain ways in which one can use their mobile phone more safely.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Mobile-phone-safety/Pages/Introduction.aspx


There is also a second section of the page which emphasises the risks of mobile phone use - including risks to children, interference with electrical equipment and more.





In this section it actually explains that the radio waves produced by mobile phones do not pose a known risk to health as they are not powerful enough - however there are other risks which can affect things other than health.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Mobile-phone-safety/Pages/Risks.aspx

Ken Lum - Artist & Educator

Ken Lum is a Chinese-Canadian artist and educator. He is a director of an undergraduate Fine Arts programme at the University of Pennsylvania. He works in a number of platforms including paintings, sculptures and photography. 

Lum mainly uses a combination of photographic images and text, sculptural components and other ideas that address every day contemporary life. He tends to pair images with text in order for viewers to think about social issues and the visual world.

Here are some examples of his work which I find inspiring and the most interesting.













I like how Ken Lum uses a variety of different colours in his work as this makes every individual piece of work look entirely different from one another, but still using the same theme of the image on the left and the text on right. 

I definitely like the idea of having text alongside the image as it gives the viewer a better idea of the scenario of the photograph but still leaves it open enough for the viewer to decide what the image is about.

Ken Lum's work has definitely influenced my ideas in how to create my own images within my campaign.

http://canadianart.ca/artists/ken-lum/

https://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=3389

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Lum

Barbara Kruger - Conceptual Artist

Barbara Kruger is an American feminist conceptual artist, graphic designer and photographer. She is best known for her prints where she placed a concise caption across photographs from existing sources. Her text speaks to the viewer to get leave them a message which are to do with feminism, consumerism, classicism and more.

Her work is inspiring as each piece of art holds the same idea of displaying a strong and bold message to get across to the viewer. I very much like this idea and would like to do something similar with my posters; using a strong fact I have gained from my research - as a way to shock the audience and get their attention. 

Here I have created a collage demonstrating some of my favourites and the most influential pieces of her work in my opinion.



I very much like how Barbara's images here are extremely simple but are so eye catching and interesting at the same time. I really like her idea of using a black and white simplistic image - mainly of either people or close up body parts such as the hands. 

She then uses the vibrant red colour on top of this which stands out and grabs the viewers attention - this is something I want my posters to do. I will do something similar with my posters and use short sentences and words to get a message across with simple images.

http://www.barbarakruger.com

https://uk.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=barbara%20kruger&rs=typed&0=barbara%7Ctyped&1=kruger%7Ctyped

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kruger-barbara.htm