5-A-Day Research

Social Media Addiction: 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/9986950/Twitter-and-Facebook-addicts-suffer-withdrawal-symptoms.html

7 Telltale Signs Of Facebook Addiction

• 1. Over-Sharing
• 2. Checking Your Facebook Whenever Possible
• 3. Overly Concerned With Facebook Image
• 4. Reporting On Facebook
• 5. Spending Hours Browsing Through Facebook Every Day
• 6. Mad Rush To Add More Friends
• 7. Compromising Offline Social Life

Facebook Syndrome: How to tell if you are an internet addict

Before we start you need to find out if you are an addict. Once you have admitted to yourself that you are addicted to your favorite website we can go about giving you some solutions for that problem. Here are some surefire signs that you are addicted:

1. You are late for meetings because you are on Facebook
If you ever late for a meeting or an appointment because you were checking your updates on Facebook or watching a related video on Youtube then you know you are addicted. This is classic addict behavior. It is time to get help.

2. You think about it when you are offline
I have several friends who struggle to get to sleep because they are thinking about the latest game or wondering how their website statistics are looking. If you do this then it could be a sign that you are heading towards a problem.

3. Your friends and family comment on your excessive internet use
When other people around you start to notice that you have a problem it is generally a pretty accurate indicator that you are losing it. If your mates, coworkers or family members have made comments about how much you use the net then you need to read the rest of this post.

4. You check your accounts from your Blackberry
A Blackberry is designed as a business tool. It is supposed to allow you to check your important emails and work materials without having to be in the office. It is not for checking Facebook or Myspace updates while you are having dinner with me. That is just not on. If you use your Blackberry for monitoring your social media accounts then you need help.

5. You get stressed when a Facebook “friend” doesn’t add you
Have you ever noticed yourself getting stressed over something that has happened on Facebook or Myspace? Do you ever feel like your online life is more real than your offline life? If you have been stressed about what rapper you turned out asor what magic egg someone sent you then it is time to open your eyes.

How Facebook Addiction Affects Us

In doing research for her book, keeping up on the latest studies about Facebook addiction and from her own personal experience, Adams said she's learned about several ways that addiction can affect us. Here are some of those ways she outlined during our conversation:

1. Belief we have to always be connected: "We're plugged into these machines, and I think because they're on 24/7, we think we have to be as well. We forget they're plugged into this electricity supply that gives them endless energy, and we don't have one of those."

2. Over-activity: "As a society, we are spending more time on screens overall. It's having a huge impact on our stress response system. We're sort of over-activated all the time."

3. Lack of concentration:: "It's affecting our ability to concentrate. We're more prone to disruptions. It can lead to angry behavior."

4. More stress:: "It raises our levels of hypertension and likely some sort of inflammatory disorder. It lowers our emotional intelligence."

5. Comparing ourselves to others: "It raises our feelings of envy and resentment. We're constantly comparing ourselves to what other people are doing. People are shoving their holidays in our face which is one of the things that causes the most anxiety on Facebook."

6. Losing sense of reality: "It undermines our satisfaction with life in general and can lead to depression in life."

7. Physical impact: "Physically, when you're sitting looking at a device, it affects the biological makeup of our body. We're hunched over, we're feeling lower, and we're less infused on life."

8. Loss of free time: "The time drain obviously has an impact too because we have less time to do things that will build us up, whether physical activity or spending time with loved ones."

9. Other issues: "We have a serious increase in mental health disorders. It's as if we haven't evolved as quickly as the technology. We haven't evolved in a way to keep up at it."

App Interfaces:

I've not really looked into how different elements of an app/website work and since our idea is to create a app/website to display information on a person's addiction of Facebook (currently, twitter is our next idea to develop onto if it works out) These images are research and inspiration  for how different UI can be designed within the app, examples I think work really well or show something different.

 

  

 

 

Bird Logos/ Twitter: 

Aardvark Indesign Research

Type: Mammal

Diet:

Omnivore
Average life span in captivity: 23 years

Size:

Head and body, 43 to 53 in (109 to 135 cm); Tail, 21 to 26 in (53 to 66 cm)

Weight:

110 to 180 lbs (50 to 82 kg)

The name Aardvark comes from South Africa's Afrikaans language and means 'earth pig' or 'ground pig'. Aardvarks are also known as 'antbears', 'anteaters', 'Cape anteater' and 'earth hogs'.

Aardvarks grow to body lengths of 3-5 ft (90-150 cm). The thick, hairless, rat-like tail grows to lengths of 1.5-2 ft (45-60 cm) and is used for defense. The shoulder height is 2 ft (60 cm). Aardvarks weigh 100-170 lbs (45-77 kg). Aardvarks are covered with a thick pink-grey skin that protects them from insect bites. The body is sparsely covered with bristly hairs a yellowish- or brownish-grey in colour. The leg hairs are darker than the body hairs. Long white hairs 1-2 in (2.5-5 cm) long grow from the nostrils. These hairs, combined with folds of skin that cover the nostrils when the animal is digging, protects the nose from dirt clogs and insect attacks.

Aardvarks use their powerful feet and claws, which resemble spades, for fast digging of underground burrows and digging up large earthen termite mounds to feast on the insects within. Their tough thick skin protects them from bites whilst their wormlike tongue can be up to 30.5 cm long and is sticky to trap up to 50,000 termites and ants in one night!

While foraging in grasslands and forests aardvarks, also called "antbears," may travel several miles a night in search of large, earthen termite mounds. A hungry aardvark digs through the hard shell of a promising mound with its front claws and uses its long, sticky, wormlike tongue to feast on the insects within. It can close its nostrils to keep dust and insects from invading its snout, and its thick skin protects it from bites. It uses a similar technique to raid underground ant nests.

The aardvark is hunted by wild dogs, pythons, lions, cheetahs, leopards and man. Aardvarks are not fast runners but they can quickly dig a defensive burrow. The aardvark's tail is thick and strong and they will use it as a club. Their sharp claws are formidable weapons, and if caught in the open, the aardvark will roll on its back to engage all four feet in the fight. As mentioned, their hide is extremely tough and acts as its own line of defense. Aardvarks are not a threatened species.

Aardvarks are nocturnal. They spend the hot African afternoon holed up in cool underground burrows dug with their powerful feet and claws that resemble small spades. After sunset, aardvarks put those claws to good use in acquiring their favorite food—termites.

Main burrows, which are used for breeding, can be deep and extensive, have several entrances and can be as long as 13 meters. Solitary animals  aardvarks change their home borrow layout regularly, and from time to time move on and make a new one. The old burrows are then inhabited by smaller animals like the African Wild Dog.

During mating season the males will start to look for females. The males may fight each other for the right to mate with a female. After mating the couple will go their separate ways. Several months later the female will have one young. Occasionally twins have been identified but it is extremely rare.

The young will be well cared for by their mothers for the first six months of life. During that period of time she will teach them how to survive, how to dig, how to find food, and how to take care of all their needs. This enables the young to have the best chances of surviving on their own. The average lifespan for the Aardvark is 18 years in the wild and 23 years in captivity.

The aardvark has no known relatives, and is the only species in its order.

http://www.onekind.org/be_inspired/animals_a_z/aardvark/

http://www.thejunglestore.com/Aardvarks

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/aardvark.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardvark

http://2wapworld.com/web/w_posts.php?forum_id=77&topic_id=2792511

http://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/aardvark

Secret 7"

Secret 7’’ combines music and art for a good cause. What we do is take seven tracks from seven of the best-known bands and artists around. We press each of those tracks 100 times to vinyl then get creatives from around the world to interpret artwork in their own style for of one of the 7 tracks; resulting in a one-of-a-kind sleeve for every single one. We exhibit these for a week, then on Record Store Day (April 20) you can get your hands on one, or more, for £40 apiece.

You won’t know who created the sleeve, or even which song it’s for until you have parted with your cash – the secret lies within.

2012 Entries

I found it really interesting looking at the back at the previous entries of the Secret 7" competition as many of the pieces really ranged, as well as so many different styles been used It's hard to make a judgement in what direction to take my work.

 

HAIM - Better Off
http://www.haimtheband.com/?ths7h

I never wanna see you again with the beating of my heart witness
I say no, no, no, no, I'm done I'm done

I never wanna see you again with the beating of my heart witness
I say no, no, no, no, I'm done I'm done

I wanna get back to
I wanna get back to everything I had
Before you came around, you fucked me up,
What am I do to now
But in my mind I keep seeing you, seeing me,
And how good we used to be, used to be, used to be, used to be, used to be
I keep seeing it, seeing me
And how good we used to be, used to be, used to be, used to be, used to be

And now I'm finding I cannot deal with this
Going crazy wanna go leave you want in
Say you wanna work this out boy
Don't need to beg 'cause you'll never get it again

'Cause I'm better off this time this time
No not baby not this time around
Oh I'm better off this time, this time, not this time
'Cause I found out yeah, I found out now

Forgiveness is that all you want from me
I wont fall, into the arms of the one who to know me
Its getting to dark for me to see

So I keep flashing back to when we met
We were better then, better then, better then, better then
I held you I didn't have to share it then
Better then better then better then better the
Now my mind is taking me back to this
Too much time to think about what it is
What made us fall apart
Well don't need to beg 'Cause you'll never get it again

'Cause I'm better off this time, this time
No no no not this time around
Oh I'm better off this time, this time
'Cause I found out you yeah I found out now

I'm better off this time this time
No baby not this time around
Oh I'm better off this time, this time, this time
'Cause I found out you I found out now

Oh you know I'm better off this time, better off this time
Oh you know I'm better off this time, better off this time
Oh you know I'm better off this time, 'Cause I found out, I found out now

Oh you know I'm better off this time, better off this time
Oh you know I'm better off this time, better off this time
Oh you know I'm better off this time, 'Cause I found out, I found out now

 

History, Culture, Society and Politics

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/first-things-first-manifesto-2000

In the First things First Manifesto, which was rewritten in 1999, first published in 1964 by Ken Garland. They explicitly talk about the devaluing of a designers work through the production of commercial work, as it holds no social or cultural value. Instead designers should be aiming to create more useful and lasting work that takes upon democratic forms of communication and this is something we should all strive to.

'Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.'

In the latest session in pairs we had to generate words that we would associate the positive and negative things that immediately came to our heads using the following words: 

• Politics
• Society
• Culture
• History
• History

It ended up me having the same amount for both positive and negative and the same for my partner.

After this we then had to come up with statements that we personally believed in for both the positives and negatives for the 4 words again:

Politics

Positive:

• Everyone should be seen as equal, no classifications.
• Labour
• No one person should be in charge of a country.

Negative:

• The rich controlling what happens.
• Dictatorships, no one alone should control a country.
• Corruption of politicians.
• Out of touch leaders.
• Capital Punishment

Society

Positive:

• Communities working together.
• Law keeps everyone in order.
• People who work hard.
• Families that take care of each other.

Negative:

• Scrounges of society
• People who things created for their community.
• Parent's who neglect that kids, viscous cycle.

Culture

Positive:

• It's a living evolving thing.
• Constantly generation content.
• We unconsciously take part in it.
• Different and valued differently everywhere.

Negative:

• Annoying fads and trends.
• Irritating Viral media.
• It often takes along time for something to fade out.

History

Positive:

• Makes for great movies and stories.
• Lets us learn from what does and doesn't work.
• A story of how we got to where we are, interesting.
• Features the discovery of everything we know in the world and where we had it wrong.

Negative:

• Written by the winners, everything is one sided.
• It continuously repeats it's self.
• Alot has been lost due to other people destroying evidence.
• Glorification of vile people, Genghis Khan.

Now I to summarise all of these:

Politics:
I really don't agree with the rich having more power over the poor because they already control the banks and media and I don't think politics is the place where money should have more weight. Following this I'm all for democracy and everyone having their voice heard with what happens within the country and the people should ultimately have control to an extent.

Society:
I detest people who destroy society with vandalism, damaging things created for them such as  parks and buildings, it's one of the most infuriating and selfish acts. I hold no respect for people who don't respect those around them, people who bring their children up in a similar manner just to have the repeat happen. In light of that I wish that all communities could work together to fight that but most people are all too wound up in their own lives to reach out and act against these things. I do like the Police and what they do even if they are shown in a negative light but everyone always highlights the most negative parts of everything. I do respect the people who work hard and the families that take care of one another because It can be hard to care for everyone equally.

Culture:
I really find culture interesting and the concepts and things that catch on within a group of people, for that to then spread to the rest of the world. This is now made even easier through the use of the internet and the speed that things can catch on amazes me. Most recently the Gangnam style video which even though is sang in Korean became a hit within countries that don't even speak it. Fads and trends work in a similar way, even if they are horrendously cringey. The thing with culture however is that nothing stays permanent for too long, unless it becomes a founded tradition within a countries community's own culture they themselves die as well. Through immigration cultures can merge and evolve.

History:

I also take a keen interest in history, reading about it is like fantasy and that's what I love about it. Things like  wars, landmarks, kings and queens and their relationships actually happened and it is that that amazes me. It's often good that no one could make half of it up, even though things may have been edited to change people's view of someone ultimately it's based on some truth from documentation just like today's newspapers and media show people and what they do. And because of this everything is often very biased with the history being written by the winners of battles and wars etc instead of showing it from everyone involved's perspective. Because things from long in the past are very often half the truth, we'll never know the full extent of discoveries, events and documentation.