We asked Megan Gregory from the school of Art, Design and Architecture to talk to us about her article in FIELDS, our open-access student journal. Megan wrote about 'slowcial media' as an alternative to social media and the need to disconnect from being online.

‘ROOT’, an exploration into the need for rebalancing of natural and digital lifestyles, challenging the human disconnect with nature. The application uses social media as a positive platform to encourage these changes through the use of a plant-monitoring system with key features of familiar social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Users can be reconnected with nature (advantageous for their wellbeing) and remember the importance of looking after themselves.

Connected to a living plant within the home, only when the plant is healthy can access to the social aspects of the app be granted. Interactions on the app are limited initially to four per day, intended to make conversations more thoughtful, meaningful and considered. These interactions can be increased depending on how much time the user spends outdoors.

The ‘home feed’ of the app features a filtering system, encouraging users to share images and posts about their outdoor adventures, gardening tips and plant progress, focusing much less on ‘selfies’. The aesthetics for the app are derived from printing inks developed for the project from beetroot and turmeric paired with a modern visual language of sustainability within the digital age.

open access research technology social media fields-author-spotlight fields wellbeing