Assignment 1: Social Media Needfinding (9/12/2023)
a. Hunch
A hunch that I will be briefly exploring is that commonly used social media apps undermine academics/school. However, I am not hyper-fixating on this theme as I would like to get a more general understanding of my interviewee's social media experiences.
b. Interview Background
To get a diverse range of student backgrounds, I am going to interview the following individuals...
- an MIT student who is not an avid social media user
- an MIT professor who is a design expert
My interview subjects have varying levels of social media use and academic backgrounds, so I want to dig into why this is and how social media affects their daily lives (especially in regards to academia). To be more specific, both of the people I am interviewing are very invested to academics (professor and student going down PhD route). Furthermore, the MIT student I am interviewing has little to no social media experience, whereas my professor interacts with a large majoriy of the "main" social media platforms. I'd also like to stress that my hunch is nothing more than that -- a hunch -- so I want to keep the interviews pretty general to not pigeon hole the information that I gather.
c. (rough) Interview Outline
Quick Intro about interview context
Subject background
- Tell me a bit about yourself -- hometown, hobbies, college ( and major!!! )
Social Media Experiences
- What forms of social media do you use?
- What purpose does social media serve in your life?
- What is your favorite aspect of social media? What is a pain point of social media?
- Would you consider yourself "addicted" to social media?
- If yes, what do you find addicting?
- If no, are there certain procedures / limits / best practices you have implemented to use it less?
- Which social media app would be hardest to "delete"? Why?
- If you had to get rid of all social media, what would your initial reaction be?
ASK RELEVANT FOLLOW UPS TO ANY INTERESTING RESPONSE
Academics + Social Media
- What affect does social media have on academics in today's world?
- Has social media affected your academic career thus far? If so, how?
ASK RELEVANT FOLLOW UPS TO ANY INTERESTING RESPONSE
Wrap-up
- Is there anything else that you would like to mention before we end?
- Thank you for your time and engagement!
d. Interview #1 Summary - Noah ( Raw Interview Notes )
The biggest takeaway I had from my interview with Noah was his reluctancy to waste time aimlessly scrolling on social media. About 8 years ago, Noah had downloaded Instagram as a freshman in high school. He almost immediately realized that he was looking at useless content and quickly lost interest. Noah has had no urge to redownload the app ever since. This "useless" instagram content was very contrasted by his opinion of YouTube content, one of his only and most used social media platforms. Having used it for so long, Noah has a solid intuition of how the YouTube algorithm works and intentionally clicks and subscribes to certain content to tweak his "Suggested" videos. "The main thing about [YouTube] is that I am able to be in control of what content I am seeing."
Noah's awareness of his habits/uses of social media was interesting to hear about. I asked about what his reaction would be if he had to delete all of his social media. He quickly responded with “I feel like I would open my phone a lot and get ready to send a Snap or watch something on YouTube and be like ‘Oh, I can’t do that’. It would be hard to break those habits.” Nonetheless, he reflected on his lack of interest (and use) of social media as a positive influence on his life. “One of my favorite times is going to bed, and sitting for like an hour and thinking about life. Over the past year [the lack of] social media … played a big role in getting me to commit down this path. Because not many people do it, and [getting a PhD] almost feels like a risk. If I hadn’t thought about it as much as I have, I don’t think it would be something I’d be willing to do." Hearing this was pretty awesome, as most of the conversation surrounding social media is about depression and poor mental health.
e. Interview #2 Summary - Blade ( Raw Interview Notes )
The major theme that I noticed in this interview with Blade was his perspective of social media after starting to use it as an adult. Although he has accounts and uses a wide variety of social media content, he does not find much purpose in it. Blade quickly glossed over his favorite aspects of the platforms that he uses. This was a stark contrast to his passionate response when asked about his biggest pain points regarding social media. “They are awful. They are meant to be addictive, and addictive in bad ways. They show short formed content. I HATE short formed content." Needless to say that Blade does not have a Tik Tok. Throughout the interview, Blade was consistent in not being too connected to social media. Although he admitted to being "addicted" to social media at different times in his life, Blade said that his reaction to having to delete all of his social media accounts was "Sounds great."
As Blade is a design consultant, he also had some deeper rooted issues with social media than simply not enjoying the content. Blade spoke of the algorithms implemented by social media apps that are tailored for clicks and ad revenue versus a great user experience. He continued by touching on the amount of data that is mined by these social media companies. Blade authentically admitted that the shopping ads on Instagram are pretty damn effective. One line from this interview that truly sunk in was "[Social Media] creates a really distorted view of the world and people do not know how to analyze statistics. They don’t understand what is actually happening.” Although some gen-Z tik tokers may argue that he sounds rather pesimistic, Blade's background and experience in the design world give him more than enough credibility to make these statements compelling. It was awesome to hear his perspective about social media.
g. Design Opportunities
- "Once" a day social media
- I envision this as a platform where users can only share a modestly short post once per day. Large accounts swamp peoples' feed, and at times can make it hard to keep up to date with people you actiually know. I'd think this would also encourage people to put more thought into their posts.
- "Typos Encouraged" feature
- one feature that I think would make people be very particular about what they post, and how they communicate in their post, is an app where a user can not delete content that they put out. Personally, I get annoyed when influencers make these bold and outlandish claims, but then get pushback and take their post back like it never happened. If someone has a "hot take" and wants to post it for millions to see, they should give it some decent thought and be prepared to stick behind their words.
- "Shell" - a hub for your social medias
- This idea came spurred out from trying to work around the addictive algorithms of the "main" social media platforms while still being able to use the app. I envision "Shell" as a platform where users connect to their various social media accounts to place "tags" on certain content across all platforms and view it in one place. For instance, I could create labels for "News" and "Sports", tag relevant accounts that post content related to my 2 tags, and then view it on "Shell". I think this would be an interesting app in that it would give full algorithmic control back to the user.
- "Smack-ademia" - an academic centered social media experience
- Initially, this was the hunch that I wanted to dive into. I don't have a very specific vision for an academic based social media platform; however, after my interviews I certainly feel that the need for students is there. My friend Noah spoke of how that social media could offer a potential solution down the line. Furthermore, Blade (an MIT professor of mine) did NOT give much credit to social media affecting his or his students' academic career. This may sound like an argument against this app; however, I view it as quite the opposite -- a potential opportunity to make an app that would have a more significant impact on academia.