Progress
I continued with my intervention 3, this is how the volunteers spent their social media time in September and some pictures of them going outdoors:
Dong, 19
Most used social media: Douyin
Average using hour: 4.6hrs per day
Xu, 20
Most used social media: Douyin
Average using hour: 5.2hrs per day
Yang. Y, 20
Most used social media: Weibo
Average using hour: 1hr per day
Yang. Z, 19
Most used social media: Weibo
Average using hour: 4.8hrs per day
Li, 20
Most used social media: Xiaohongshu
Average using hour: 0.4hrs per day
Compared to August everyone’s time was reduced, they go to the park or shopping and watch films more often than before. Yang. Z says he goes out and rides with his friends every weekend night. However, there are some problems with the project as it progresses. The enthusiasm of the volunteers has decreased drastically, and the efficiency of communication through the internet is relatively low. At the same time, Xu dropped out of the project because she was too busy with her studies and too stressed. For her, being away from her mobile phone is now more anxiety-provoking, but she will still try to take conscious control in the future.
Dong said that the intervention worked well for her because she saw it as a challenge. To increase the difficulty, she set fewer and fewer limits on the amount of time spent on social media use. She also said that she prefers a reward-based process and that the programme would have been more effective if there had been a clear mechanism for rewards and punishments.
Game
Based on Dong’s suggestion, I imagine that I could create a game where participants complete different tasks on each level to succeed in the challenge, and complete x levels to defeat the boss FOMO.
These are some of my sketches to help participants focus on real life through these levels. But I don’t have any experience in game design, so the likelihood of achieving this idea in the time I have left will be low. I think I might try to change the video game into a card game or something else, this idea needs more thoughts and improvements from me.
