Hi Chuck

I absolutely agree. I have been keen to do something since reading
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring as a kid at school. There are of course
people who have a need for change in their life, but this often seems to
relate to speed of feedback. For example the social network
acknowledging/complimenting on a new purchase, but not more complex
systems of change with delayed feedback like contributing to saving the
planet. Everyone feels so diluted in terms of personal impact it leads
to 'social loafing' in many cases, as 'the flow' takes us further down
the pan. There also seems to be an issue of the intensity of feedback
from the system/network, and people leave things till the last minutes
when the 'chasing' messages raise anxiety levels to a point that it is
less effort to complete the task/change than to continue the present
behaviour.

Designers might look at ways of improving feedback, but then in many
cases the greater 'honesty' could result in products and services
becoming economically unviable, (because they are inherently irrational)
but at the end of the day people need jobs to eat. For example the
troubles in Puerto Rico where people cannot afford to be choosy to get
work. I see such troubles ahead for many of us, to some degree, as this
unsustainable economy becomes more unstable.

Another problem with feedback is that by its very nature it has to have
happened, but what we are trying to deal with has yet to happen, but as
pointed out by Denning (2005:228) future stories/scenarios by definition
are not true, so are easy for people to discount or procrastinate about.
It comes back to the effort issue again.

So should the argument be to increase the effort required to continue on
this unsustainable path? This would suggest new policies and
regulations, but they all take time to agree. Time we don't have.

So maybe we need to develop and reinforce social embarrassment within
the networks as immediate feedback of what is unacceptable.

Regards

Kev

Denning, S. (2005) The Leader's Guide to Storytelling. Mastering the Art
and Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.


Dr. Kev Hilton
Head of Research
The Centre for Design Research
School of Design
City Campus East
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST
UK

0191 243 7340
[log in to unmask]
http://northumbria.ac.uk/experts/kevinhilton


-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and
related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Charles Burnette
Sent: 29 September 2009 23:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Social networks

On Sep 29, 2009, at 11:10 AM, Kevin Hilton wrote:

> This is what the health and wellbeing, and the sustainability  
> promoters
> amongst us are constantly up against, in seeking to change behaviours
> and develop a more realistic and responsible culture. Oh hang it, it
> really is easier to keep going the way we are, in our social network,
> even if we do appreciate it cannot be sustainable. It doesn't seem  
> worth
> the grief, life's too demanding as it is, with information overload  
> and
> so many choices to occupy us, and keep us distracted.
>
> Some of us are however more confident and exercised to swim against or
> across the flow, watching and looking to change and to change others,
> with some successes; looking for new patterns of opportunity for  
> change
> that start off by going with the flow but become redirective. We  
> have to
> find realistic ways of 'baiting' people towards change by letting them
> 'pre-experience' the benefits, with benefits that outweigh the
> investment in effort.

Kev: The problem is that we can no longer just go with the flow: get  
more obese when our friends do, continue to waste energy because  
others do; refuse to respond to climate change because our competitors  
don't; be as greedy as our peer group, etc. (With regard to the last  
point there is another very interesting article that goes directly to  
this social determinism. It is entitled Rational Irrationality: The  
Real Reason that Capitalism is So Crash Prone by John Cassidy in the  
current (October 5, 2009) New Yorker magazine (Newyorker.com).

There is a need for the individual willful mind open to consequences  
within every social network.  We need to reward and protect the  
whistle blowers. Think Rachel Carson, or even Teddy Roosevelt when he  
put away his rifle and dreams of empire to protect nature from its  
despoilers.

One can argue strongly, I believe, that designers have the moral  
responsibility to help every group they serve to see better  
alternatives than they might collectively do.

Chuck