《推到公园
通过TH!NK by IBI
日期
2018年5月9日
One of the most intriguing parts about living in a city is the perpetual refresh of moving parts. The ephemeral nature of passer-by’s insinuates a certain heartwarming social randomness, 让博客 纽约的人类 如此受欢迎. These serendipitous moments are one of the most enchanting things about our cities and often contribute to a greater sense of community and 社会健康.
随着致密化和发展压力的增加, 的方式, 的地方, and amounts in which we interact with one another have taken a turn for the worse. Social isolation and loneliness are now common ails and pose great health risks to city dwellers at all scales.
Many argue that technology is making this issue much worse. 尤其是社交媒体的使用 加剧社会孤立 同时给人凝聚力的错觉. 我们能把这项技术用在好的方面吗?
在秋千酒吧见我
人行道上的实验室 最近测试了一款名为Park Time的手机应用, geared towards parents who take their kids to the park and want to get to know other parents during their time there.
The beta model lasted for five months and was used by eight families in Chicago whose children were all part of the same school group. 虽然他们的孩子是朋友, the parents hardly knew one another and were interested in further connecting.
Park Time sent mobile notifications to participants when one of the other parents entered the park, 轻轻地鼓励他们加入. The app worked by placing a Bluetooth beacon at the park entrance which scanned app user’s phone when they passed through. 一次扫描, other app users were notified of who passed through the beacon, making it easy to know when they could expect to see people they knew.
Park Time uses Bluetooth technology rather than GPS in order to provide users with maximum accuracy and security. 而GPS则追踪用户的位置, Bluetooth only shares the participant’s location with other pilot families when scanned, 并且不会侵犯人们的隐私.
Parents were positive about Park Time and appreciated the real-time information that encouraged them to connect with others. The app was best received by parents with more flexible availability as well as those interested in expanding their friend groups. Parents with tighter schedules or secure friend groups did not find the app as helpful. 而不是, these “planners” wished that the app provided a function to plan for park meet ups, although this was not the intended function of Park Time.
人行道上的实验室 sees opportunities for the app outside the beta community, and imagines similar results for other meet up arrangements such as those looking for a co-working buddy or running friend. Park Time’s beacon technology could be leveraged to reframe both privacy and community as urban rights and help us mitigate social isolation. In the era of lonely cities, how else can we use technology to bring us closer together?
