For my year-long thesis project at Normative, I hope to answer one big question: Does technology (particularly as it relates to the web, devices, and sensors) have a positive, negative or neutral effect on human well-being (physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual)? In other words, can technology actually make us healthier, happier, smarter, and more connected?

I wonder, where are web, mobile and sensor technologies succeeding today in positively impacting well-being? Where are the future opportunities, and risks? If we are what we make, as Bruce Sterling posits in “Shaping Things,” how does a designer create technology that will have a genuine, positive impact on well-being? What role do designers now play in facilitating experiences through technology to have a positive effect on well-being?

My hypothesis is that technology has the habit of balancing itself out. It affords us to work less, but in exchange we must work more, albeit in different ways, to ensure the continued functionality of our technologies. It can bring us closer, and also leave us feeling further apart. It can hem things in, but also open up new possibilities that we don’t yet fully comprehend. Technology gives us choice, but choice can lead to madness if we don’t have the capacity to make the right choices.

By influencing the way we see the world – through visualization tools, recording devices, and experiential designs, technology has changed our definition of what is possible. In fact, the new question is: what isn’t possible? Are there things that technology can never replace when it comes to human well-being? Are there some things in life that technology should leave alone?

In order to answer all of these questions, I will look at historical evidence, current paradigms, and future design fiction. I will also undertake some simple experiments using the web, devices and sensors during everyday situations to observe how my well-being is affected (or unaffected) by technology. 

Relevant articles are being collected at www.technolific.tumblr.com. Follow me elsewhere on the web @aisforayla.