Initial Topic：
Applying the existing offline social methods to online social in order to relieve the anxiety caused by the social network.
Keyword: Digital well-being, Social Anxiety Disorder, The third place,
During the pandemic, I started to work from home, and my screen time kept going up, we do know phones bring lots of advantages to our life, for instance, shorten the distance with my family far away. But it also brings anxiety for taking too much information from my phone.
For myself, I especially feel the pressure from social media, whether the exaggerated news or watching others' life statue, would make me feel less secure or satisfy about myself. I feel the comfortable distance within people is hard to maintain, your life may easily be interrupted by those massages.
All those make me reflect on offline social methods. Very first and most important, the is a geographic gap to divide your personal space and public place. so whenever you feel tired, you could close the door, but "the door" no longer existing in the digital social network.
So I want to bring the offline social methods to online, especial within the phones, in order to ease the anxiety brought by social media.
Model of personal space and public space.
I made a model, to show my idea about the offline social method, in a real-life, there is a line or a door, between you and others, you are able to have a conversation with strangers place like a corridor, but can also back to your comfort zone.
Feedback:
The topic needs to be narrow down like the target group need to be specific.
The corridor is not that clear to express my idea, because it is not mainly used for social.
Get understanding of "third place" may help me narrow the specific place I want to focus on.
Target group-Generation Z
I watched the “social dilemma” (a documentary made by NETFLIX), this explains the concept of “generation Z”, which made me clear about my target user.
Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years to define Generation Z because they have widespread access to smartphones. Also on a worldwide scale, members of Generation Z are spending more time on their electronic devices and less time reading books than before.
The third place
In the book "The Great Good Place" (1989), Ray Oldenburg coined the term of "the third place", referring to the social environment independent from home (the first place) and workplace (the second place) which can help us gain a balance between work and life. And he believes that third places are vital to civil society, democracy, civic participation, and the establishment of place identity.
Parks as one the third place, they do more than just provide a place. "In the view of these park visionaries, parks were not “amenities.” They were necessities, providing recreation, inspiration, and essential respite from the city’s blare and bustle. And the visionaries were particularly concerned that parks be available to all of a city’s residents-especially those who did not have the resources to escape to the countryside."
-- Paul M. Sherer, Why America Needs More City Parks and Open Space
When I am exploring the parks in London, I find the park layout here is fairly different from China. According to the London government, there were 3,000 parks of varying sizes, London is actually a green city.
In Shanghai, one of the metropolitan of China（Left Picture）, usually within one district, there will have several big parks for people to exercise and usually used by the old. But in London（Right Picture） the situation is quite different. There will be a park within a walking distance and used for various kinds of activities, which means the parks here are more tangible. Hence, I choose parks in London and my research target.
The result is provided by Google map by searching the keyword "park" in two areas.
Conclusion:
So the first week, I clarify my topic, and narrowed my target group to the Generation Z. Also changed the metaphor I use, from the corridor to the park.
And due to the culture difference, every country may have its own park cultural, my project will be mainly focused on parks in London.
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