Designing for the Self

Abstract

Some of today's most widely used technologies do not seem conducive to self-care, and consequently they do not nourish us as selves. Rather, in today's most lauded sociotechnical systems, from Google search to Facebook, users' participation (free labor) is commodified and channeled into corporate profits. Users do engage in self-focused activities, such as posting selfies and status updates, but these do not have the character of self-care. This amounts to self-obsession without self-consideration. An illustration is given by comparing the early-modern artistic practice of self-portraiture with the modern-day smartphone practice of selfie-making. Self-portraiture has been shown to be conducive to self-care, whereas the selfie by and large is not. This comparison invites strategies for injecting self-care into selfie-making technology, as an entree into designing for self-care generally. These strategies include jardin secret, self-questioning, and multiplicity.

Citation

Gorichanaz, T. (2020), "Designing for the Self", Information Experience in Theory and Design (Studies in Information, Vol. 14), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 99-110. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-537720200000014012