Un-use is the transition period from engagement to disengagement with technology. Very close to what I want to do with Machines That Let You Leave.
Discussion is the meat. Deliverables:
- Identify and reflect different kinds of transformations involved in making un-use
- Vardouli theorized different types of transformations in engagement with things: physical transformations that change the thing, and intentional transormations that change the intention and purpose of the thing.
- These two are reciprocal.
- She also discovers aesthetic transformations like turning the phone into grayscale (though I don’t quite get how this differs from physical, I would rather call this state transformation) and interactive transformations, like turning phone on airplane mode.
- Reflect ontological and epistemological consequences of making un-use
- Interesting gap that I can cover: “For example, Baumer and colleagues [5] conducted a qualitative study where participants were asked to deactivate their Facebook account. Even though providing valuable insight into peoples’ experiences and perceptions in discontinuing their Facebook use, the fndings do not tell us about peoples’ technological strategies of approaching this deactivation nor was this deactivation triggered intrinsically” (Krischkowsky et al., 2021, p. 7)
- Another:“In another study by Brubaker and colleagues [8], they investigated in semi-structured interviews with 16 men why they stopped using Grindr, a location-based social networking app for smartphones that is used by gay men. While here the disengagement was not triggered externally, the accounts collected are of retrospective nature, not accounting for the in-situ practices of making un-use.” (Krischkowsky et al., 2021, p. 7)
- Generally speaking, there seems to be demand for in-situ practices of making un-use.
- “(2) making un-use requires an active engagement with the material world” (Krischkowsky et al., 2021, p. 8) KEY to my project as well
- Interesting gap that I can cover: “For example, Baumer and colleagues [5] conducted a qualitative study where participants were asked to deactivate their Facebook account. Even though providing valuable insight into peoples’ experiences and perceptions in discontinuing their Facebook use, the fndings do not tell us about peoples’ technological strategies of approaching this deactivation nor was this deactivation triggered intrinsically” (Krischkowsky et al., 2021, p. 7)
- Discuss consequences for design
Makes me think, leaving itself is thin. Like their critique on screen-time apps only facilitating a pre-defined way of un-using, there is no creation in feeling guilty about how much time you spend on your phone, and letting the app tell you once in a while that you’ve exceeded your limit. You have to come away with something material.
I must design something that “cater for the users’ search for active disengagement, for their making un-use”.