“Our smartphones manipulate us” Chris Messina, Founder of Hashtag

“Our smartphones manipulates us”, said Chris Messina, Product Designer, Technologist and Inventor of #hashtag during  Ahmedabad Design Week held in Ahmedabad.

Explaining further, Messina said,  “The inventory of EFFECTs in #SocialMedia world today includes digital addiction, mental health, breakdown of truth with a massive spread of fake news phenomena, polarization by using what one likes & dislikes on social media platforms, political manipulation of users and superficiality of the digital world.”

Speaking on “The Design of Better Human”, Messina said, “You can change the technology by changing yourself. We have to design ourself better and it has to come in between education and designing things for with corporates and companies.”

Messina also shared how digital technology is becoming more pervasive and intrusive in its nature. He highlighted the fact that it is going to be difficult to find out what is real and synthetic in coming times.