Stage 1: Transhumanism and Identity

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STAGE 1 TRANSHUMANISM AND IDENTITY

‘An exploration into the relationship between Transhumanism and identity and how it effects purchasing behaviours’

‘An exploration into the relationship between Transhumanism and identity and how it effects purchasing behaviours’

Ella Josey N0573593 Word Count: 7,686

CONTENTS

Chapter 1: An Introduction to the study 1 - 2 Introduction 3 - 6 Methodology 7-8 Rationale Chapter 2: Pre Existing Literature 9 - 10 Transhumanism: A Key Philosophical Issue 11 - 14 Preliminary Transhumanism: Evolutionary Futurism 15 - 18 Transhumanism: A Step By Step Process 19-20 Transhumanism: Changing the Face of Human Need 21 - 24 Liberalism Vs.Transhumanism: Consumption and The Loss of Free Will 25 - 26 Transhuman Futures: Neuroscience and Neuromarketing

Chapter 3: Research Findings 29 - 32 The Digital Identity 33 - 38 Digital Identity Construction 39 - 42 Digital Legacy 43 - 44 Transhumanism: The Loss of Free Will and Privacy.

Chapter 4: Findings 45 - 48 - Insights 49 - Possible Market Gaps 50 - Conclusion Appendices, References and Ethics Forms.

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Introduction

‘Transhumanism posits that humanity is on the verge of rapid evolutionary change as a result of emerging technologies and increased global consciousness’. (Pilsch, 2017 ). Transhumanism’ describes an intellectual movement which denotes humans transcending their limitations through interaction and physical integration with technology.

In this report, transhumanism will be examined through the lens of the consumer; how has increased technology usage shaped society and individuals, and in turn, does this effect the ways in which people purchase, and why they choose to purchase?

This report will explore how Identity is affected by digital connectivity by deconstructing the digital identity and whether this effects the ways in which consumers purchase goods, and as a result how marketers must now promote to us to capture consumer attention. Consumers will be explored in relation to their generational segments; Millennials, Generation Z and Baby boomers will all be examined to quantify levels of transhumanism and decipher whether age effects digital identity and transhumanist receptiveness.

Project Objectives: To understand if individuals consider technology as a part of their identity To see if technology is a part of peoples Identity whether they know it or not.

To discover whether the merging of technology and identity encourages purchasing.

To define the ways in which buying behaviours have changed the more technology is introduced.

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METHODOLOGY

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Methodology The research throughout this exploration is used to underpin current attitudes towards transhumanism, and establish a clear relationship between actual identity and transhumanist identity, underlining the positive and negatives, and similarities of each. Secondary findings were largely taken from sociological and philosophical rhetoric, as transhumanist prose was initially difficult to penetrate, with its discussions central to the foundations of life; ‘the posthuman calls for changes in humanist epistemology, that is, how we investigate and describe the world, and also in humanist ontology, that is, how we understand what constitutes life and objecthood’– (Campbell, 2012, P1). Due to this, a huge volume of wider reading of secondary texts; namely academic texts, took place. One particular text; Homo Deus was detrimental to the understanding of upcoming evolutionary change in relation to human behaviour. With transhumanism particularly; it became apparent that the only way to fully comprehend its development was to not look forward, but look back on the nature of human need and desire and changing evolutionary behaviours in the past. Limitations of secondary findings is that transhumanist rhetoric was largely biased as a result of being written by enthusiasts who interpret transhumanism as a cult religion. Critical findings are extremely dismissive, with no published middle ground or neutral findings. Another major challenge is that transhumanist works are largely future predictions; no one can guarantee they will come to life, therefore the works cannot be treated as fact, consequently predicting future consumer behaviour from secondary research proved challenging. Despite this, the secondary findings laid an invaluable foundation for this project particularly in understanding the posthuman and its many facets.

With regards to primary findings, the three aforementioned generational segments were measured against each other; with the aim of identifying intensities of transhumanist behaviour exhibited in each set. This evaluation is of major importance to understanding the transhuman concept. Bourdieu (1993) argues that ‘generations are socially and culturally defined and produced. Different generations will have different tastes, orientations, beliefs and dispositions or ‘habitus’ (Belk, 1988). The ‘Habitus’ of each segment was key in identifying general receptiveness to the transhuman ideology, and helped to gage whether receptiveness stemmed from age and transition into technology, or another factor entirely.

The research conducted was as follows: 6 X Semi structured interviews 3 X Semi Structured Focus Groups 3 X Online surveys, 80 + Respondents from each segment 9 X Netnography observations over the period of a week.

Visual testing on all qualitative respondents.

METHODOLOGY

Overall, this study managed to obtain over 30,000 written words in interviews, 9 weeks in mobile usage observations and a total of 283 online survey responses over the segments. A large-scale study such as this is imperative in understanding the many aspects of transhumanism in contemporary consumers.

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METHODOLOGY

A total of six in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted, two from each segment. Each interview lasted approximately half an hour and consisted of 6 sections: Social Media behaviours, future behaviours, buying behaviours, needs, and a visual testing element. The interviews were extremely thorough to get not only a comprehensive understanding of current purchasing behaviours, but to measure receptiveness to future behaviours, and quantify levels of transhumanism exhibited in each segment. This was an extremely authentic way in which the research was collected, and the one-on-one time allowed for tremendous insight into the attitudes of the participants. The only drawback with this method was that the findings were very specific to each individual and as a result harder to categorise and analyse against the other segments.

All three online surveys provided a basic underpinning of the fundamental differences between identity and transhumanist attitudes displayed in each segment. Nevertheless, whilst providing an interesting quantitative overview, the depth of insight was not sufficient alone in providing complex knowledge into generational differences, and only provided a surface level understanding of the relationship between transhumanity and identity in age groups.

METHODOLOGY

The three focus groups discussed the same content as the interviews, however with the purpose of seeing authentic discussion throughout the segments. The research seemed more truthful as participants were discussing more with each other and less with the researcher, meaning discussion was less forced and increasingly genuine results were recorded. However, the group often went off topic and had to be drawn back in to discussion, although they were still deliberating the matter at hand, there were many circumstances in which they didn’t actually answer the question. Despite this, the focus group proved to be considerably easier to analyse and really exhibited the variance between the generational segments, providing incredible insight.

Nine participants, three from each segment, had their phone usage tracked over the period of a week. The purpose of this was firstly to realise the extent to how transhuman individuals truly were; analyse the difference in age segmentation usage to determine whether habitus (Bourdieu:1993) was a key defining factor in transhumanism. Additionally, to compare actual usage to assumed or estimated usage; which helped answer the objective – are we transhuman? And secondly, are we despite not knowing it? The only limitation of this research was its inconsistency and unreliability. Some participants experienced problems of the app interacting badly with their smartphone software or other apps, and crashing often. Not only this, but most reported that the amount they use their phone changes frequently, for example, Sarah, a Generation Y who worked as a teacher, claimed that on a half term she used her phone at least 2-3 hours more per day than when she was working.

This is applicable all professions and the nature of time off. Therefore, when the app concluded the average weekly rating, it wasn’t accurate of everyday life which is by nature subject to large fluctuations. Additionally, different age groups are likely to experience different quantities of leisure time, e.g.

Retired baby boomers may be more active on their devices due to a greater amount of free time, the same applies for other segments also, such as students or those that are unemployed. However, it was proficient in highlighting the difference between assumed and actual time spent interacting.

The visual testing element was carried out in both the interviews and focus groups with the aim of uncovering the true differences between the online and offline self. The reason for this research method, was a feeling that recipients would not know if their personalities were different online, however, by asking recipients to describe it in terms out of their selves; they were able to conceptualise it more clearly. This method was extremely effective in getting to the core of the difference between the virtual and digital self.

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RATIONALE

Transhumanism is a concept that is both current and future facing, and is extremely pertinent in contemporary society. It will have detrimental effects on the way ‘beings’ purchase goods and that marketers will consequently have to respond. Due to this it is extremely stimulating to research. It poses an alternative world that is quite real, and although frightening, it probes the innate human instinct to be boundless; which is fascinating both philosophically and psychologically. It challenges the core foundation of both humanist and liberalist ideals, whilst promising a new brand of superhuman. However most interestingly, it is happening right now. Whilst humans absentmindedly integrate technology into their lives; they are becoming more and more transhuman by the minute – with an ignorance to what they are becoming.

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Transhumanism: A key philosophical concept Human nature, if it is proper to speak of such a thing, is not fixed: it has changed in the past and it could change again…How much nature has to change before our descendants cease to be human is a question we are not ready to answer. In this respect it resembles the question about when, in the course of evolution, our ancestors became human’ (Campbell, 2012: 1, Fernandez-Armesto 2005: 169170) Despite its ubiquity as the premise for modern day science fiction, transhumanist thinking ‘has been prevalent since the beginning of human existence. Life extension, anti-ageing prophecies and immortalisation ideals are omnipresent through literature and tales throughout history and religion worldwide. Just one example is Christianity, which refers to immortality as an aspiration, a God like characteristic. ‘For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality’ (1 Corinthians 15:53). Creating a desire in human need for more; a brand of superhuman that is not perishable nor bound to the constraints of mortality.

‘We can justifiably hold the belief that these lands of possibility exist, and that the present limitations and miserable frustrations of our existence could be in large measure surmounted… The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself—not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity.

(Huxley, 1957) It can be assumed that post-humanism has always been centric to human aspiration, purely from the very core of the socialisation of humans in society. Posthumanism put simply, describes the aforementioned quest to transcend humanity, to move past the fragile human condition and achieve God like durability. transhumanism could be considered as a subset of post humanism, to achieve posthuman ideals through use of science and technology. Which is what can be seen to be happening today; through use of robotics, medical advancements and artificial intelligence. The complexity and problematic nature of transhumanism, lies in the fact that ‘The posthuman is both a speculative philosophy and a material reality’ (Campbell 2012: 3). It exists in two realms, and whilst it is certainly present in modern day culture, it is also a cult movement, which basis its aspirations on a posthuman idealist framework that does not currently, or may never truly exist. To predict the transhuman would be overindulgent, yet to disregard it would be ignorant of Darwinian evolution.

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Preliminary transhumanism: Evolutionary Futurism Pilsch describes preliminary transhuman ideals as ‘evolutionary futurism’, concluding that many of the ideologies seen in current transhuman manifestos were derived from Nietzsche’s theory of the overman ‘Ubermensch’. ‘I want to teach humans the meaning of their being, which is the overman, the lightning from the dark cloud ‘human being’ (Nietzsche, 1885). Pilsch reasons that there is a ‘strong affinity between evolutionary futurist rhetoric and Nietzsche’s philosophy of human overcoming’. (Pilsch,2014, p25) Despite this, Nick Bostrom, leading transhumanist theorist disputes this, in his title ‘The History of the transhuman thought’, suggesting that Nietzsche focused less on ‘technological transformation’ but on ‘personal growth in exceptional individuals’ (Bostrom, 2005). In spite of what Bostrom states, there are two major flaws within his argument.

Firstly, there is no way Nietzsche could have predicted such a ‘technological transformation’ as Bostrom expects, as Nietzsche’s Ubermensch was published in 1885 before technology was at the forefront of society and these ideas were even conceivable.

Therefore, the only way in which conquering human limitation at that time was through personal growth as Nietzsche recommends. Not only this, but the Ubermensch states: ‘I am that which must overcome itself’ (Nietzsche, 1885). The very basis to which founded Posthumanism was the utopian vision for overcoming humanity, so to state that Nietzschean work made little to no contribution to the formulation of the transhuman movement is unfair. As a result of these 2 flaws, Bostrom’s argument can be perceived as illegitimate and can be concluded Nietzsche was a lead founder of Pilsch’s ‘evolutionary futurism’. Leading futurist philosopher, Max More, seconds this argument, stating that ‘these are not merely parallels: transhumanist ideas were directly influenced by Nietzsche’ (More, 2010, p1) because they directly inspired his studies in the futurism field. This concludes that ‘evolutionary futurist’ thinking helped to define todays transhuman movement, before technology was even at its forefront, due to an innate human desire to be more.

Sociologist Foucault was yet another practitioner of the ‘evolutionary futurism’ rhetoric, with his concept of ‘The death of man’, suggesting that the contemporary notion of man will not continue to exist, as man will evolve into something else entirely: “It is comforting, however, to think that man is only a recent invention, a figure not yet two centuries old, a new wrinkle in our knowledge, and that he will disappear again as soon as that knowledge has discovered a new form.” (Foucault, 1966). This article coincides with the Antihumanist movement; a critical viewpoint of the human condition.

This shows that transhumanism and Antihumansim are not dissimilar, therefore proving that transhumanist ideals somewhat oppose humanist ideals, which are based on liberalism and equality. In his article ‘A letter to Mother nature’, Max More discusses how human evolution has failed mankind: ‘What you have made us is glorious, yet deeply flawed. You seem to have lost interest in our further evolution some 100,000 years ago…We have reached our childhood’s end. We have decided that it is time to amend the human constitution…Over the coming decades we will pursue a series of changes to our own constitution, initiated with the tools of biotechnology’.

(More, 1999)

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More and Foucault share similar interpretations on the concept of ‘the death of man’, suggesting that man will not only evolve with ‘evolutionary futurism’ but become something else entirely, non-human. This is a radical and extremist form of transhumanism; as most transhumanist thinkers aim to use technology to surpass human limitations; not to become a different species.

This thinking identifies more with Antihumansim than evolutionary futurism and questions the ethics of transhumanist works. This is not just the subverted view of evolutionary futurists; modern transhumanist O’Connell also shares this partially Antihumanist view, and defines transhumanism as ‘a liberation movement advocating nothing less than a total emancipation from biology itself’ (O’Connell, 2017, p6). The problem with this, is that there appears to be a fine line between Antihumansim and transhumanism, however the majority of humankind are not ready for a ‘total emancipation’ from biology.

This view shared by More, Foucault, and O’Connell is what pushes transhumanism into the ‘cult’ status box, or as Noble (1997) describes ‘The Religion of Technology’, which opens it up to criticism, and takes it from probable reality to the premise of science fiction, which is why as Campbell (2012) suggests it is a ‘speculative philosophy’ as well as something quite tangible in the eye of the public.

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The Transhuman Upgrade: A Step by Step Process First coined by biologist Julian Huxley in 1957, transhumanism has grown into a widely followed movement, with the emergence of the Worldwide Transhumanist Association in 1998, named Humanity+, who describe transhumanism to be: 1.The intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.

2.The study of the ramifications, promises, and potential dangers of technologies that will enable us to overcome fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies. – (WTA, 2018)

Humanity+ claim to evaluate the dangers of increasingly transhuman beings, and to carry out their developments ethically, however the very argument of improving the human condition altogether, poses many ethical qualms due to the nature of human greed. As historian Yuval Noah Harari concludes in his text ‘Homo Deus’ ‘No clear line separates healing from upgrading. Medicine almost always begins by saving people from falling below the norm, but the same tools and know-how can then be used to surpass the norm’ (Harari, 2017, p59-60). Throughout his rhetoric, Harari narrates the inevitable downfall of humankind by technology, however, he is no researched transhumanist thinker, but a historian of the evolution of Homo sapiens, so such development in human nature is surely an alarming and sensitive subject matter. One who has spent so long studying the past is surely to be afraid of the developments of the future. Readers have no right to assume that Harari’s scaremongering conclusions are in fact correct: ‘Homo sapiens are not going to be exterminated by a robot revolt. Rather, is likely to upgrade itself step by step, merging with robots and computers in the process, until our descendants will look back and realise that they are no longer the kind of animal that wrote the bible, built the Great Wall of China, and laughed at Charlie Chaplain’s antics - humans will gradually change first one of their features, and then another, and another, until they will no longer be human’ (Harari, 2017, p56)

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The Transhuman Upgrade: A Step by Step Process

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The nostalgia with which Harari discusses the past shows his extent of fear for the future.

He discusses the humans of the future, but from a historical perspective, ‘that descendants will look back’, and no longer be the same kind of animal. This notion displays Harari’s obsession with being stuck in the past. But are humans the same kind of animal they were 10, even 20 years ago? No, they are digital natives, glued to their iPhone’s and office screens. What Harari is forgetting, is that, alike any animal, humans must adapt to survive, and conceivably the only way to overcome illness, poverty and natural disaster is to simply cease to be what Homo sapiens once were.

He is also short sighted to suggest that ‘they will no longer be human’. It is perplexing to what ‘being human’ entails to Harari, and which characteristics does he define as human, when humans are redefined every living day through both evolution and socio-economic circumstance. The argument lies within the fact that humans may already be transhuman, with Apple iWatches, extreme smartphone and tablet usage, prominent digital identities and a Netflix addiction. The definition of transhuman is not so linear that it is restrictive to simply inbuilt technology. If one is interacting more with the digital world than the real one; then are they human? Iofcea & Novak (2018) invalidate Harari’s argument further by stating that, ‘The upcoming technological evolution will not exist in absolute terms... Like a spectrum, there will be a range of possible alternatives from humans that continue existing in their original biological form, all the way to completely digital beings. What is interesting is that evolution will become something that is chosen and not created by chance’. Halberstam & Livingston (1995: 19) second this view, supporting that the posthuman condition is an enculturated mixture of machine and organism. (Graham 2002: 1).

If this is the case, with humans all in different stages of transhuman evolution; then it can be assumed that upgrade will become the new class status system. The more evolved one is, the richer they will be perceived as; not only in monetary form but in life quality. For marketers, this means pushing quality of life, (a long-term mission) to all consumers instead of instantaneous gratification which is the key to purchasing in current day society. In a transhuman world, marketers need to push product as if it will improve long term quality of life.

Those who consume in the long term will be perceived to be intelligent bourgeoise, and those who consume based on instant need will be perceived as weak, and of poor judgement – a proletariat. Gaps in class will become widened; the ‘techno-elite’ versus millions of the ‘cyber-underclass (Graham, 2002: 70). Kaku (1998) suggests that the biotechnological revolution ‘contains no consideration of global inequalities’ (Graham, 2002: 70). Equally, the United Nations Human Development Programme state that technical advancements are ‘polarising the world into the connected and the isolated’. (Jolly, 1999, Graham 2002: 70). Graham goes on to criticise that transhumanism only adheres to a ‘minority’ need (those privileged with internet), asserting that homo sapiens without access to clean water live on earth; whose needs and desires are unrepresented by the posthuman revolution of the elite. Contrary to this opinion, there is some validity in the opposing viewpoint that technological futurism is driving globalisation; which in turn, aids poorer countries, lessening the severity of their ‘isolation’ and inequalities faced.

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Transhumanism: changing the face of human need

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Transhumanism: changing the face of human need

The entire concept of a need will be outmoded when the day comes that ‘human need’ will inevitably evolve to ‘transhuman need’. The transhuman species will not have needs, for all his base desires will be taken care of by artificial intelligence. Without needs, desire will be the forefront; a man who has no needs can only desire; yet a transhuman man can only desire rationality. Futurist David Simpson (2016) validates this point by identifying the post human need through revising Maslow’s hierarchy. He does this by removing the first two base levels, so only social, self-esteem and self-actualisation remain, since ‘the bottom needs will be taken care of by AI, you get to spend most of your time socializing, living your dreams’ (Simpson, 2016). This paints an idyllic picture of everyday life, however, Simpson’s approach is largely exorbitant in optimism. New needs will arise from the emergence of the transhuman.

For example, the transhuman is likely to face technical faults, so basic needs are reintroduced - also, there is a constant need/pressure to keep up upgrading one’s self with the latest technology; for fear of being outdated, which constitutes both psychological and safety needs, there is similarly a risk of a lack of self-identity, which constitutes self-actualisation. Disregarding Simpson’s transhumanist interpretation of Maslow’s hierarchy on account ill-consideration, Maslow’s revised hierarchy discusses a higher level of need than self-actualisation; self-transcendence, or the ‘plateau experience’, which largely conflicts with his original works on the hierarchy of needs. The plateau experience can be described as ‘the great conversion, or the great illumination, or the great full awakening, and as one gets used to good things or even great things, live casually in heaven and be on easy terms with the eternal and infinite … In plateau cognition, one becomes perfect, or can see oneself as perfect’ (Simone, 2017) .

This theory has an uncanny resemblance to transhumanist prose and mentality, and reasons that self-transcendence is not a choice; but an inevitable human need. The transhuman, once formed, will always desire the plateau experience, as an innate part of what used to be ‘human’ nature, and so will constantly evolve. Therefore, the basis of transhuman need, although differing in content, follows the same structure as human need, under Maslow’s revised hierarchy. This means for marketers that the basis of need will stay the same, and although purchasing will change to be more automated and long term instead of instantaneous, they can still promote basic goods such as food and clothing in a similar way; as it is still a base need -all that needs to be altered is that they must convince consumers and their bots that it is a need and not a want. This being said, the luxury market could be considered redundant in a transhumanist world, as although it boasts quality, which is a rational desire, a bot would not rationalise excessive spending.

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Liberalism vs. transhumanism: Consumption and the loss of free will Homo sapiens are going to slowly evolve as Darwinian Theory suggests, yet, science is going to aid this evolution, as it already is. However, Harari argues that ‘Science undermines not only the liberal belief in free will, but also the belief in individualism (Harari, 2017)’. Liberalism is founded on the beliefs of liberty and equality; however, Harari suggests that ‘The threat facing liberalism is that while the system still might need humans in the future; it will not need individuals’ (Harari, 2017, p382). One ethical concern with the development of Homo sapiens to transhumans is that of a lost identity, through interacting largely with a bot or system, individual expression is diluted. As Harari describes, future digital natives will be raised with a bot as an aid, they will talk to it as if they are a person, and the bot will listen, understanding everything to do with that child, their likes, their dislikes, their personality traits. When that child is old enough, they will ask the bot to aid them in their decisions, to give them an opinion that is unbiased by human emotion and that is entirely logical. So what will this mean for the future of consumers? Irrational decisions driven by human emotion and impulse are obsolete? Spontaneous purchasing out of the window? If humans lose their emotion and their trust in their own decision making then, will they not be robots themselves? The frightening truth is that as robots become more human, humans will inevitably become more robotic. In terms of purchasing decisions; that means automated logical purchasing, a loss of purchasing power and the complete destruction of impulse. This means marketers will have to play the long game, with life enhancing products at the forefront; instead of moment enhancing products.

‘Organisms are algorithms, and humans are not individuals – they are ‘dividuals’. That is, humans are an assemblage of many different algorithms lacking a single inner voice or a single self. Once developed, such an algorithm could replace the voter, the customer and the beholder.

Then the algorithm will know best, the algorithm will always be right, and beauty will be in the calculations of the

Yet again, Harari stresses only the negative implications of transhumanism. However, his argument lacks coherency in implying that the fundamental human organism is already an algorithm, but similarly proposing that a transhuman would also be an algorithm that would destroy liberalism.

If the human is already an algorithm, then by infusing technology it cannot collapse liberalism; as there was simply no free will to begin with, ‘free will is a basic assumption’ (Campbell, 2012). The argument that transhumanism and liberalism cannot coexist is therefore fabricated, as the human liberalist is a falsification that never truly existed through the base algorithm of human nature.

The only valid argument Harari then proposes, is that ‘Liberalism will collapse on the day that the system knows me better than I know myself’ (Harari, 2017, p396). Although liberalism does not fully exist in the human, it will further diminish with the transhuman consumer as the remaining free will be ‘less centred in the human mind and body, but something that has arisen in a ‘new space’ between AI and humankind. (Campbell, 2012).

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Liberalism vs. transhumanism: Consumption and the loss of free will

This ‘new space’ is what Campbell discusses as the future of posthuman consumption, which she coins as a ‘post consumption existence’. ‘Where the messy, materially intensive, wasteful, pleasurable, and human act of consumption will be consigned to an atavistic trait of human history’ – (Campbell, 2012: 2). A post consumption existence suggests that bots will carry out consumption in place of the individual. What will this mean for brand marketers? Marketing to a bot carrying out the needs of a human will surely not alter the marketer’s job enormously, as the bot takes on their owner’s identity in terms of their needs and wants, just applies more rational decision making.

However, the face of marketing may be made redundant, if all decisions are rational, then the need to market a ‘brand’ is nullified – alike a communist society, the transhuman world needs not a wide selection of the same product, but one product that will sufficiently fill the needs of its possessor. The landscape of consumption will evolve from ‘materially intensive’ to a ‘post war selection’ scarcity.

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transhumanism futures: Neuroscience & Neuromarketing The problematic relationship between neuroscience and transhumanism springs from the fact the core values of each juxtapose each other. Neuromarketers look at brain processes to understand human emotion in purchasing decisions, whilst the promise of a transhumanist future replaces all important human emotion with robotic rationality, and through automation; lessens the importance of purchasing power, surely making the need for neuromarketing obsolete. Neuromarketer Damasio implies that ‘We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think’ (Damasio, 1994). This assertion is laughable when considering the extent to which the opposite is true for the future of transhuman consumers.

So, will neuromarketing evolve to appeal to robot rationality instead of human emotion? Perhaps it will evolve into something else entirely; alike humans. For purpose sake, let’s coin this evolved practice as; ‘Neurorationalism’, which will aim to convince consumers that they have a rational desire and use for a product or service.

The brain has three distinct parts: The new brain, which processes rational data, the middle brain, which processes emotions and gut feelings, the old brain, which triggers input form the other two and triggers a decision. (Renvoise, 2002)

In a transhumanist and neurorationalist world; Renvoise’s theory of the new brain can be applied, and the old brain will use both the new brain and the opinion of artificial intelligence to ‘trigger a decision’. The middle brain is no longer applicable. Renvoise’s psychological studies that currently prove that ‘people make emotional decisions which they later rationalise’ (Renvoise & Morin, 2002), will be false; as consumers will not need to later rationalise, as they will have not made an ‘emotional decision’ in the first place – rationalism will be the core foundation of purchasing.

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research findings

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the DIGITAL IDENTITY Sociologist Belk (1988) conjectures over the concept of materialism and the self, he suggests that humans and their possessions become one entity (Sartre, 1943), through investing ‘psychic energy’ in inanimate objects. The objects are consequently materialised from the self; and as a result should be defined as a fragment of the self (Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981, Belk, 1988). This theory is applicable to the digital identity. One who spends time on their phones, tablets, computers online; and invests energy into it, consequently allows it to enter their identity, and so the digital self is born. However, the digital self is a little more complex then Belk originally foresaw, Belk did not predict that the digital world would not only subconsciously construct identity, but virtually, allow a user to enter and create its perceived identity into an online database for the world to see. ‘Identities have become themselves digital objects, that can be copied, upgraded or deleted.

This online identity re-construction, combined with artificial intelligence has the potential to create a new form of being, a digital being.’ (Iofcea & Novak 2018). The problem with Belk’s ideal of the ‘extended self’ is that the realm of technology has allowed users to go tenfold past an self-extension; by creating a whole other self. In fact, 64% of millennial respondents in this study claimed that the identity portrayed on their social media accounts was not a true representation of their offline identities. 40% of this group claimed that they portrayed the best version of themselves on social media, whilst the remaining 24% claimed that their online persona was not reflective of their real one at all.

It seems that Belk’s misconception of the extended self lies in the fact that his rhetoric was published in a time where technology was not at the forefront; therefore, people were ignorant to the allure of the transhumanism concept; to not only extend the self but to escape it entirely. This can be seen as accurate, when comparatively only 40% of generation Y, and 48% of baby boomer respondents stated that their identities differed on the online space. However, it is interesting to consider that, when arguing this point, the percentage of baby boomers is higher than that of Generation Y. This anomaly implies that, unlike the other two generations, baby boomers see social media as a one-dimensional platform. They cannot conceive that a simplistic account can portray the complexity of a human personality.

‘It doesn’t give a full picture of my identity because I don’t post often. It does give a true picture of some aspects I guess’ – (Susan, Baby Boomer). Additionally, as they are the segment that admit to posting the least, it is conceivable that they are more detached from their online identities, and therefore cannot claim that it aligns with their actual identity. This further proves that millennials are the segment that are truly aligned with transhumanist identities, and possess a stronger desire than other generations to separate their identities from their own selves. It also shows that baby boomers are the least receptive segment to transhumanism, as they do not care about the digital self enough to let it overtake the actual self, therefore will be unlikely to become one with technology.

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The social experiment conducted aimed to surface any underlying differences between online and offline personas. Participants were asked what animal they perceived their identities to reflect online, and then offline, and similarly with colours. The findings were largely based on personal perception, and seemed to be less influenced by age range and more on personal narcissism within the group. All three segments exhibited a mixture of both larger than life online personalities, and insular online personalities. Although there was a larger majority of millennials that exhibited larger than life personalities than those that didn’t, age segmentation was not the major factor in these findings, it was level of self-obsession.

The reason behind this difference in results may be that all ages can display online narcissistic tendencies, however that millennials are more narcissistic due to their habitus (Bourdieu: 1993) and the young age they were socialised into technology. Those that exhibited the highest levels of online narcissism were the recipients who preferred a self-separation of their online and offline identities. Mehdizadeh (2010: 359) argues these narcissistic individuals are lower in self-esteem offline. They more active on the online space, to boast ‘positive agentic traits’ (Milgram, 1974. Mehdizadeh 2010: 359). This can be seen in millennial recipient, Joy, and her response to the social experiment: ‘My real personality is definitely a lot more sweet and eager to please, whereas online I think I come across a little bit more confident, a confident woman who has her life together but who is also fun and bouncy and friendly, which I am in real life but I think that the negative aspects of my personality aren’t shown’ – (Joy, Millennial).

This inconsistency in identities presents the perfect opportunity for the marketer. Products claiming to beautify and empower can feed the platonic idealism identity (Plato, 1510), and allow the digital user the aspiration of feeling like their online self in the offline world; an impossible reality. Consuming purely for the sake of ‘impression management’ (Goffman, 1959) to aid their online identity. This encourages extreme aspirational purchasing.

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DIGITAL IDENTITY: CONSTRUCTION Identity construction is made up of two halves, ‘identity announcement’, created by an individual and ‘identity placement’, made by others approving and supporting the created identity. (Mehdizadeh, 2010: 357). Mehdizadeh argues that this applies to digital selves. The creator shares their platonic idealist digital identity, and it is endorsed by friends and family on the online space through likes and comments. Once identity placement or ‘the testing process’ is complete, the individual can then take on both identities as their own. This technological platform is offering an opportunity to be not only one; but two people. However, whilst this is conceivable for consumers in contemporary society, transhumanist thinkers contend that impending Posthumanism is set to change this, with the two identities merging until the individuals take on a technological singularity or a ‘blended identity’ (Bullingham, Vasconcelos, 2013) the online platonic idealist identity as their only form.

This argument can be regarded as factual when considering that millennials are already placing great importance on their online identities today. The same millennial, Joy, stated that the position she placed on both her identities could be quantified as a percentage, 60% offline, and 40% online. However, this acknowledgement is not synonymous with the idea of transhumanism, only 3 of the 74 millennial respondents on the online survey who claimed to know what a ‘cyborg’ was, interpreted it as someone ‘who was very digitally/technologically connected’. With the remaining 52 respondents stating that it was so linear as to be ‘a being with a mixture of human and robot parts’ and the 19 others stating that it was simply a robot.

Therefore, despite millennials admitting to caring almost as much about their digital self as their actual self, the majority do not see themselves as transhuman. The technological singularity, meaning only the online persona exists, has been described to be detrimental to homo sapiens. Leading to the ‘homogenisation of the human by the technological’ (Brasher, 1996: 815, Graham, 2002: 1). By taking on the platonic idealist identity, individuals are therefore interacting in a ‘posthuman synthesis’ (More, 1998) creating replicated identities by presenting the assumed desired attributes of humans in contemporary society, and therefore are clones of each other, undermining liberalism once more.

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‘I feel like everyone tries to promote their individuality on social media but it gets to the point where like, everyone’s the same’ – ‘the top ten percent can afford to be individual but then everyone else is just like sheep’ Louise, Millennial focus group

participant

This theory is further endorsed by the qualitative research conducted in this study:

‘With Instagram, the only way that your successful is or the only reason why people want to follow you is because your different, but once every single niche is covered, no one can be different…for the top 10 percent who have something interesting about them, for sure, but for the average person there’s no way that you can be interesting on social media – Joy, Millennial focus group participant

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Interestingly, when asked if participants perceived that their general use of technology could have altered their identity in any way, a staggering 45% of Millennials claimed it had, with an additional 23% stating that it had somewhat.

This displays an incoherency between data; signifying that although participants believe technology to affect their identity, they cannot believe it would define them as transhuman. This implies that participants see the identity and the body as separate entities entirely, almost as if their identity is not what makes them human; thus, by allowing technology to influence it they are not transhuman. It is in building devices in to the body that they perceive to identify them as transhuman.

Suprisingly, only 14 % of Baby Boomers and 29% of Gen X claimed that their identity could have been affected. The Netnographic research concluded why this was the case.

Considering the highest values from each age range, millennials interacted with their mobile devices for a maximum of 6 hours and 45 minutes per day, equating to 48% of their waking life. Generation Y spent a maximum of 1 hour and 59 minutes per day, equating to 12 % of their waking life, and Baby Boomers spent 1 hour and 42 minutes, equating to 8% of their waking life. The difference between millennials and generation Y is incredibly large, suggesting that the reason for larger levels of transhumanism is age of introduction and socialisation with technology.

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The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), (Davis, 1989) measures receptiveness to technology, and alike the primary research conducted in this study, argues that usage is based on factors effected by the socialisation process. The model contends that attitudes towards technology are based on intention, usefulness and ease of use, all which are factors which are directly influenced by socialisation of technology in society, which in turn effects their attitude towards the system’ (Chidambaram & Kwon, 2000).

For example, while a baby boomer might feel that technology offers no ease of use, a digital native such as a millennial would regard it as the easiest method of both communication and information due to their early socialisation into it, in fact, millennials now start constructing their digital identities from aged 2, there are even cases of ambidexterity in thumbs as a result of overuse of games and phones by children, these are referred to as the ‘thumb generation’ (Buckingham, 2006, Brooke, 2002).

Technology could therefore be viewed as more useful to a millennial if they have a stronger understanding of how to optimise and use it correctly, proving the TAM model to be accurate in terms of millennial usage behaviours. The reason that the usage gap is so great is that millennials are ‘distinctly different from the preceding Generation X’. (Tapscott, 1997, Jones & Shao, 2011), ‘they think differently, they learn differently, they exhibit different social characteristics and have different expectations about life and learning (Jones & Shao, 2011). However, Buckingham (2006), disputes this point, stating that it is not habitus but fear of technology from the other generations that causes this variance. ‘It typically emerges as a consequence of adults’ fears about the escalating pace of social change, and their anxieties about a loss of continuity with the past ‘(Buckingham, 2006). The primary findings below indicated the different levels of transhumanism exhibited from a qualitative perspective. It was important to gain this knowledge to measure against the Netnographic to understand if there were any discrepancies between actual and perceived transhumanist identities.

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BABY BOOMERS: ‘Technology is screwing our lives up there is too much of it there is too much information moving round and we can’t cope with it - it is pushed to you and when you see people bent over their phones which is a common stance it gets to you...But there is some good stuff and some bad stuff’ – Julian, Baby Boomer Focus Group Attitude: Useful but fearful GENERATION Y : ‘Its entertainment– but if I didn’t have it, I would find another way of living my life, I wouldn’t feel like my life’s over, I think there was periods where I didn’t have a mobile phone, and no one I knew had a mobile phone, and my first mobile phone didn’t have all these features, I don’t think we really need them, they’re nice to have.’ – Richard, Generation Y. Attitude: indifference MILLENNIALS: ‘I have the most unhealthy relationship with technology. I am consistently on my phone and if I can’t find my phone I panic because I know there’s things that I need to be doing that I can’t do with it i rely on it to do all my work, my uni work, my social media work, just everything’ – Joy, Millennial Focus Group Attitude: Obsession Both the Netnographic and the qualitative research display that Millennials have the most prominent technology addiction and online self as a result of their status as ‘digital natives’. This means that they are the strongest consumer group to market to on the online space in terms of conversion rates due to their extreme usage levels. They likely to buy on the online space to feed their platonic idealist identity, which provides a great opportunity for future innovations that look at improving impressions or beautifying one’s self.

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DIGITAL LEGACY Homo sapiens have an innate desire for a legacy; to be remembered (Festinger, 1983). The Egyptians used to carve their life stories in symbols on the walls of pyramids, whilst ancient western civilisation would write biographies and diaries; the modern man uploads himself onto the online space, leaving a digital footprint to be remembered by. AI also now offers consumers the potential opportunity to upload themselves onto a technical device, a bot can now be anthropomorphised (Duffy, 2003: 1) and take on a human personality (Fong & Nourbakhsh, 2003), living on whilst the human ceases to exist. This concept lessens grieving and bereavement and allows the memory of others to stay alive.

Choudhury (2011) argues that this concept is ‘preservationist’, but that it is owed to human descendants that contemporary society keep online records of themselves. Contrastingly, Weber (2011) invalidates Choudhury’s argument by claiming that this preservationist concept is illogical, as digital legacies are not sustainable. “If we’re not careful, our period could end up as a Dark Age. Everyone is putting material into digital formats, but not putting much effort into preserving it.” (Weber, 2011, Choudhry, 2011). Although this is not exactly a ‘deletionist’ view in juxtaposing with Choudhry, it does suggest that digital legacies only exist on the basis that its creation technology does. If a mass technological failure deleted the cloud, all digital memory of what homo sapiens are in contemporary society would be wiped out.

There is also the fear that as technology becomes outdated, the more photos and memories are left behind. For instance, this can be applied to the recent transition of popularity from Myspace to Facebook. All photos and memories on Myspace are lost to users once the platform is considered outdated. Grotophorst seconds this view, stating that ‘the Web site containing one’s precious memories is much more likely to expire before the owner’ – (Grotophorst, 2011). Despite this, insight from the primary research conducted presented Grotophorsts point as moot, as the baby boomer category appeared extremely interested in preserving their legacy via digital identities and online archiving. Perhaps, in the defence of Grotophorst, it can be argued that this is due to the previous insight that baby boomers are more detached from their online profiles and present a one-dimensional online self. As a result, they have a stronger desire to collate a digital self through digital archiving to make up for their lack of online identity and innate need for a legacy.

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‘Your future grandchildren will inherit a digital version of you’ – (iofcea, Novak, 2018)

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‘I keep records of everything – lots of archiving. I’m currently working through all my memorabilia, photos, school magazines, etc. I’ve gotten to 1990 ish so far… I use technology a lot for storing things like that. It’s a way of keeping stuff to do with family history – so although it’s about me, you’d say he wants everyone to remember him in the future…I’ve scanned in my mother and father’s photos of generations ago, going back until the 19th century. So, it’s a sense of sort of history of who we are, it will be easier – although I can leave the sort of physical things to my children, they probably won’t want to keep it, whereas, leave it on some disks and they’ve got everything that goes back.

I’ve got records of all sorts of things like books I’ve read, CD’s and LP’s I own, all sorts of things like that’ – (Phil, Baby boomer interview).

The interesting element to this insight, is that through the fear that drives baby boomers to re capture their human existence through digital archiving; the more transhuman they are becoming, through uploading themselves on to the digital space. This element of fear is something that encourages purchasing massively, hence the emergence of companies such as Snapfish and Photobox that allow customers to print digital photos from an app.

Yet another example is Headspace app, by which through fear of losing touch with the self, and attention deficit caused by technology, consumers use further technology to relax and meditate. This industry has huge potential for marketers and entrepreneurs alike to tap into, using fear as their touchpoint, businesses can penetrate the minds of baby boomers and drive them to purchase.

transhumanism: The loss of free will and privacy As it has been previously established throughout the literature review by secondary sources, purchasing is going to become more automated and rational in a posthuman world. However, primary findings were essential in understanding the future detailing of this. It was imperative to find out whether this would entail the continuation of using large conglomerate companies such as amazon taking their data and their privacy in return for convenience; and how consumers would feel about this.

The findings from the primary research proved to be very insightful in this matter, especially the below passage from Richard, a Generation Y participant.

‘I have Cortana. I think it’s a good thing, and I think that if we want the free services we want we have to give something up. What people want, is they want everything for free, but they want their privacy, but they can’t have that. And for these things to work as well, they need your voice data.

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So you’re happy to give up your privacy?

Depends what I’m giving up my privacy for.

For a great technology service?

Yes perhaps, I can’t expect things for free and not have to give something, if I’m not willing to give money I have to give something else.

This provides incredible insight into the mind of the Generation Y consumer. Whilst they like technology, and are happy to interact with Cortana, they are mindful of the consequences of their consumption. However, more remarkably, whilst feigning indifference to technology, they are content to knowingly give away personal data to corporations such as Amazon, allowing themselves to become increasingly transhuman. One interesting question probed the existence of the future Amazon ‘reorder’ service, which wholly takes purchasing power away from consumers by controlling and maintaining stock levels in their homes. All age participants proved extremely receptive to this idea, supposedly for the sake of convenience but similarly, all stipulated that this would only be allowed for essentials such as toilet roll etc. and not consumption that they enjoy, such as the purchasing of clothes etc. The insight that can be taken from this is that whilst Baby Boomers and Generation Y exhibit fear and indifference of technology, the prospect of convenience overrides this, showing that the human mind is feeble to transhumanism and therefore, it is imminent.

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INSIGHTS

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Millennials Attribute: Obsession.

Millennials have been found to have the largest discrepancies between their online and offline selves, and exhibit the most prominent digital identity of the three segments. As a result, they are willing to alter purchasing decisions to achieve their platonic idealist identities, providing a great opportunity for brands to push aspirational product and experiences. Due to this, Millennials are also extremely likely to act as clones of each other on the online space.

Millennials are also largely transhuman in their high levels of mobile interaction, and therefore are the group most likely to be receptive to future transhumanist technologies.

The future of purchasing: Due to their current aspirational purchasing, they may struggle to adapt to making rationalised decisions aided by AI in the future, meaning there could be a crossover market opportunity that supports both rationalism and indulgent purchasing. Despite this, as they show extreme levels of acceptance to AI automated purchase, with little consideration of the consequences compared to the other segments, this presents large opportunity for AI innovation and re-ordering functions to expand.

Generation Y Attribute: Indifference.

Generation Y feign indifference to technology, and whilst their usage is much lower than that of millennials, they are still happy to exchange their privacy for technology. They are receptive to transhumanist rationalism more than millennials, due to their lower levels of aspirational and indulgent purchasing and self-obsession.

The future of purchasing: Rationalisation is the future for Generation Y, who are very likely to consider the opinion of their bot or aid in the future. This means that marketers will have to use ‘Neurorationalism’ to capture them and their bots attention. If Generation Y will only buy things that they truly need in the future, then the luxury market is at risk of failure.

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Attribute: technology is viewed as both useful and fearful.

INSIGHTS

Baby Boomers

Baby Boomers exhibit a one-dimensional digital identity, and as a result of their fear of technology, display the largest levels of digital archiving and digital legacy creation to preserve and remember the human identity. They are receptive to AI taking away their purchasing power due to convenience in their busy lives. They dispute and disregard the transhuman identity whilst being subject and controlled by it.

The future of purchasing:

INSIGHTS

A digital archiving service or product would be a fantastic aid to baby boomers looking to preserve their memories more tangibly. Also, bots or household aids would likely be in high demand for Baby Boomers who value convenience over anything else, and hate menial household tasks.

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Possible market gaps: There is a massive gap in the market for creators of digital legacies, by which consumers could have one place to store all their memories, as it has been discovered humans outlive the social media platforms that memories are uploaded on. This kind of service could be marketed at all three segments but most prominently baby boomers, and could allow memories to be uploaded on a bot or technical device to keep forever.

Automation of purchasing is widely accepted by all age segments, a possible opportunity is a service that does not claim as much personal data as amazon, that re orders essentials to the home by perhaps placing stock monitors in cupboards instead of listening in to private conversations. This would give privacy back to the transhuman consumer.

Rational decisions are the future of transhumanism, although through this, consumers lose free will and liberal decision-making opportunities. A preventative method for this could be a rationalised budgeting scheme, which combines both rationalism and gives leeway for impulse. The service could use AI to allow consumers the opportunity to set aside a small amount of money each month for purchasing goods that are non-essential and irrational, guilt free, and have personalised recommendations from their AI devices based on their personality suggesting what purchases would make them the happiest.

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Conclusion Whilst both the primary and secondary research through this study has led to great insight to the extent of transhumanism on identity and purchasing behaviours on both the contemporary and future consumer, more studies around the area are imperative to understanding more about the rationalisation and loss of free will in transhumanist purchasing, as this is a large and imminent consequence of transhumanism with a large scope for research.

Despite this, the findings have provided understanding about the behaviours of generational segments, showing different transhumanist tendencies in each.

What was the most interesting about this study, is that, whilst many might assume that Millennials are the most transhuman segment, Baby boomers, through their digital archiving and the Generation Y’s undermining of their own privacy, displayed major transhuman tendencies that was not identified in Millennial behaviours.

What can be identified, is that Millennials exhibit the most prominent digital self and therefore identify more than the other segments with the transhumanist identity. Most fascinatingly, despite displaying major transhuman tendencies, Generation Y and Baby Boomers were both extremely dismissive of their identity as a transhuman, and are in a state of denial about where the future of technology will take them; whilst at the same time, allowing themselves to be controlled and manipulated by technology.

The biggest insights from this study are possibly the emergence and future prominence of the digital legacy and the discovery of the acceptance of automated purchasing in contemporary society. Both of these factors will largely influence the future of online identity and the loss of liberalism in purchasing.

Appendix 1 - MILLENIAL SURVEY.

Appendix 1 - MILLENIAL SURVEY.

Appendix 1 - MILLENIAL SURVEY.

Appendix 2 - GENERATION X SURVEY

Appendix 2 - GENERATION X SURVEY

Appendix 2 - GENERATION X SURVEY

Appendix 3 - BABY BOOMERS SURVEY

Appendix 3 - BABY BOOMERS SURVEY

Appendix 3 - BABY BOOMERS SURVEY

Appendix 3 - BABY BOOMERS SURVEY

NETOGRAPHIC - MOMENT APP - MILLENIALS Joy - Millenial

Louise - Millenial

Florence - Millenial

Hannah - Generation Y

Angie - Generation Y

Jasmine - Generation Y

Sue - Baby Boomer

Phil - Baby Boomer

Wendy - Baby Boomer

Phil Vivian interview. Baby boomer age range.

Section 1: Online Social Behaviours So, do you have a social Media account, and what is the purpose of your social media accounts?

It’s Facebook, it took over from friends re-united which I had before as a way of re-establishing contact with friends from the past, people I’ve taught, people from college or work or something like that. I also use it as a way of interacting with All Saints (dramatic society), with our patrons, because we have pages on there. And then I use it to read news from as well, and things like AFC Bournemouth – I find out about them on their page and things like that – yeah, so I use it for lots of things.

What is the content that you share the most?

Two things, probably one is to do with the drama group, on a personal level it’s probably to do with sharing personal news, like when my grandson was born last month, or like we’re out somewhere – I’ll actually usually get Andrea to tag us in somewhere, because I’m so rubbish at it – so I do share like that. I also share things like photographs from when we’re on holiday… erm - sharing news and occasionally I do also share news items with my own view on them - I do that quite a bit Insight: experience economy – like to share experiences to boost social value?

Okay – so are you selective about who you share this content with?

As far as I know – it’s just with my friends, but I don’t usually select from within my friends – so any of them can see it.

Would you like to have more followers are friends then you currently do?

Only from the point of view of, that it meant I was getting in touch with more friends from the past I would add them, I don’t have a certain number that I crave. I’m not interested in having people on there that I’ve never met just because they’re Facebook friends or whatever and I actually have unfollowed by two or three people in the last two or three months – people that I taught at language school and I thought actually I’m not unfriending them, but I really don’t need to see what they’re doing in Saudi Arabia or Italy.

Insight: filters his content so that he can see things he wants to only. Does not want to waste his attention on irrelevant information. Uses Facebook as a tool and not a distraction. A trait of baby boomers?

Okay, so do you think that your social media correctly portrays your identity?

A large part of it, yes. I think the people who know me well, recognise me on social media. I think that the things I am passionate about come across, I mean you’ll never fully get a picture – but you never fully get a picture from spending an evening talking to somebody either!

Do you think that your identity is affected at all by social media?

To a certain extent it is because where I don’t as often in day to day life comment about – well particularly about political issues, I will comment on, on social media.

Why is that?

Why? Well I suppose because you’re having - you are just giving your thoughts once instead of say having 40 different conversations with 40 different people – and it lets those people know where I stand – not just politics and certain social issues - it is a convenient way of sharing the fact that you just signed a petition or sharing of the fact that you’re in my case usually saddened by something to do with trump or Brexit, and sometimes I do get in short conversation people. But I don’t – you get so many people who are aggressive or abusive I just, I don’t want to get involved with that so I just leave it if that’s what happens.

Insight: Facebook is a filter that allows him to say his political views freely as he chooses who see’s and is okay sharing his views with those select people. Talks more freely online than would do in real life.

Uses Facebook for a more political identity. For a more professional or seemingly intellectual identity.

Do you think that looking at others on social media has a positive or negative effect on you?

Others as in friends – well its nice because you find out what’s going on in people’s lives – find out good news – I mean for example, last week my friend Suzie Dellow posted on Facebook that she’d just passed her exam of some kind – so I congratulated her – I might not see Suzie for the next two weeks, so you put a little message of support to her.

Insight: relationships online in baby boomers are more constructive than destructive. Looking at others has positive effects and not centred so much around boasting and portraying different identity. more honest identity and less self-centred approach to using technology.

Do you think that in general other people’s identities affect your own personal identity?

I hope not, Andrea tells me I’m too honest, so I think that probably means it doesn’t. I don’t think I say one thing to one person and one thing to another. I think, I think I pretty much stick to what my own personality and identity is – I can’t be swayed on that.

Insight: personality formed strongly before technology could affect it. Strong personalities are not swayed by others or technology?

Do you think that social media give people a platform for self-expression or encourages homogeneity?

I think it gives them a platform for self-expression. I think one of the negatives is that it gives them a platform to express themselves irresponsibly whereas if they were in a room with some friends – those friends would jump on them for things they might say whereas online they can just say it and leave it and ignore any replies they get – tolling – that sort of thing – people can do which they wouldn’t be able to do face to face.

You know jokes about people. I think for some people it does encourage that kind of behaviour and sharing because they find likeminded people and gravitate towards them. Probsbly things like Britain first, is probably social medias convient way for people all around the country with those views to come together but I think you have always got the ability to select what you respond to or interact with. I mean there are things I look at and think, well I disagree totally with that and my response will be to scroll on – I’m not going to get involved.

Section 2: Buying behaviours Do you consume a large online or in-store?

Well, if you take everything - weekly shop and that, then its more in store. But I do buy stuff online, I have got Amazon Prime. So, I will buy stuff online if it’s easier – I mean for me its probably pretty much balanced.

Okay – so you know your Amazon prime – what is the reason that you use that service?

To get things quickly. That’s the thing, I know there are better sites with better benefits for music and films, but the main thing was – so that I can get it tomorrow. And then other members of the family can order it on my account.

So, it’s all about how quick your purchase is?

It’s speed, yeah.

So, in terms of buying online vs. instore, do you think you’d buy more items in one go online or more instore?

I don’t think there’d be any difference. I’m just as likely to pick up 4 or 5 things in the store as I am online. I might put them on my Wishlist – that’s the difference sometimes, yeah.

What’s more important to you in making a purchasing decision?

1. Price 2.

Speed and convince of purchase 3.

Volume of choice?

They’re all important, I suppose I will look at things in the shop and then go see if I can get it cheaper online – but if I can – the fact that I can get it the next day is just as good as buying it that day in the shop because the longest you’ll wait is another 24 hours - erm volume of choice yeah inevitably if im looking at books of CD’s there’s more online, on amazon or wherever else I go than there is in any shop.

Insight: volume of choice online has meant that online is predominant source and had made even baby boomers more discerning consumers.

Do you think that shopping online has altered your expectations for all shopping?

That’s an interesting question, hmm, no I don’t think so, I think I know for example that I’d go into Tesco and look for an external hard drive but actually but ill probably only do that so that I can go and pay the price of the same one online and you’d see a bigger choice online – so I suppose its made it more targeted- there’s certain reasons why ill go in the shop and certain reasons why ill go online. Like ill cant be bothered to wait even a day for a new ink cartridge so I’ll go instore.

Do you use interactive games to false purchase, eg. A sims game?

No. Section 3: Visual testing element.

What animal would you say you are?

Oh dear, I’d have to think of something id hoped was – that did things, that was fairly gentle – I suppose if it was a stereotype, maybe an owl.

What animal would you say your social media presents you as?

It’s a bit shape shifting actually, because it depends what mood I’m in. I think I’d come across – I’m rarely ever angry on the media, I’m more likely sad about something, when you do your faces (emoji’s) far, far more. I’m like eyore the donkey but he’s not a real animal.

Insight: stated that have identical personalities online but now has revealed that hides anger element of personality from media, only showing better traits online. Tailoring personality online without knowing it. Hints at digital identity. Comes across as a soft Disney character online – shows wants to appear soft and idyllic.

Describe features of your online personality using three descriptive words?

Um, right, forgetting any modesty or any boasting here. I think I am warm online, honest, enthusiastic.

And for you offline personality?

Energetic, supportive, and hopeful What colour would you describe yourself to be?

Green - because it’s the colour of life to me

And what colour are you online?

Maybe I’m a sort of a … a warm purple something like that. I like celebrating other people’s successes or putting a metaphorical arm around them online.

Section 4: Value of technology Please describe your relationship with technology?

Right, so I use it a huge amount in my work, obviously being a teacher. It really revolutionised things – like my typewriter, saving things as hard copies – so I use it a lot for that, I also use it a lot for what I do with drama, I keep records of everything – lots of archiving. I’m currently working through all my memorabilia, photos, school magazines, etc. I’ve gotten to 1990 ish so far... I use technology a lot for storing things like that.

So why is that important to you to do that?

Why? It’s a way of keeping stuff to do with family history – so although its about me, you’d say he wants everyone to remember him in the future it’s also about, I’ve scanned in my mother and father’s photos of generations ago going back until the 19th century. So, it’s a sense of sort of history of who we are, it will be easier – although I can leave the sort of physical things to my children they probably won’t want to keep it whereas leave it on some disc’s and they’ve got everything that goes back. Um and I also do creative stuff, creative writing, so I can do that on the computer or at least type it up and store it on the computer, I’ve got records of all sorts of things like books I’ve read, CD’S and LP’S I own, all sorts of things like that.

Insight: Idea of the new legacy, digital legacies. Storing memories.

Would you consider yourself to have a healthy relationship with technology?

Yes. Why is that?

Because I make it wok for me and I’m not a slave to it, although, particularly being chairman of all saints, I do have loads of emails and Facebook messages to reply to, but I tend to do what I want to do with it. I mean I’m not somebody who thinks ive got nothing to do so I’ll sit for two hours on social media. I do what I need to do, I go off it.

Do you think that technology adds value to your life?

It must do, otherwise I wouldn’t do it. Yes, sometimes it transforms things. I mean yes you might not be able to go and see your friend in Sheffield but at least you can talk to them through skype or emails, you do that, and it doesn’t stop you doing anything away from technology that you used to do. Yes, it must add value.

Insight: reaction Do you think that technology adds value to your social status?

I don’t think so because if I was going to make a Pratt of myself I could do it just as easily on an email or Facebook then I could if I was actually speaking to them.

Do you think that the fact that you have social media makes you cooler?

I’ve never thought of it in that way – I think its not just that. I think maybe I the early days it was cool and now that everyone has it its not anymore. And I can’t be bothered with anything else, facetime or Instagram – I don’t think I need them.

Do you think if someone who was your friend didn’t have social media would you think that was weird?

Cause I do know people who don’t use social media. Some people send me emails instead of Facebook.

Do you think that if technology were to disappear tomorrow; that you would adjust easily, or do you think of yourself as very reliant on technology?

I would be able to adjust but I’d miss it a lot; I mean word processing, using spreadsheets, it makes things so much easier because otherwise you have to keep hard copies of everything. I also used to play a few games.

I don’t so much these days, but I think there are huge downsides to it. No I think it’s a useful extra tool, it’s a bit like saying you’ve got a toolbox and you’ve got a drill in there, and with that electric drill – well that makes drilling easier, if it wasn’t electric, well you could use the old one but it would be harder. It just makes things that you did anyway easier to do.

Section 5: Future behaviours Does the thought of your technology knowing you so well that it helps you make decisions excite you or scare you?

I wouldn’t rely on it, because I think that emotions play a massive role. I would never want to 100% hand it over but as an aid to decision making ill listen to it, but I’ll just as easily listen to the person standing in the room with me.

So, you’d sort of treat it like a person?

It’s just another source of information, for example if I’m preparing material about a novel, I would still read books about the writer, as well as look up stuff on the internet.

How do you feel about the emergence of driverless automated cars?

Mmm, I’m baffled as to how they work. So, I’m thinking, what happens when the unexpected happens? I think id always want a human override. I think humans are more immediately adaptable. I might be wrong, but I tend to think, everything can’t be reduced to an algorithm.

In the year 2050, people will be estimated to be talking to their AI devices such as Alexa, more than their spouses, does this come as a shock to you or do you think that this sort of interaction with technology is already happening today?

I think that there are people who don’t have the interactive social skills to match their interactive technological skills, I mean even people like charlotte, often jokes and says I haven’t got any social skills but I know what she means, and I do think there are people that are more comfortable on their own interacting with technology than being with their friends and that worries me somewhat because there’s more to life. It’s a bit like if the technology did all the tricky things for you and frees up more time to socialise that would be great, but you can’t just live life interacting with technology.

Do you consider that technology in the future will make the need to shop obsolete?

Well ‘I’ll be dead before that happens! I think it will change the balance of how things re done but not make it obsolete. I think there will be a wave of enthusiasm but then people will have a nostalgia for the past.

Section 6: Needs What needs does your technology fill?

Work – it allows me to work in a certain way, including research. It facilitates quick contact with people. It can speed up things like making arrangements, purchasing.

What aspect of technology encourages you to purchase the most?

Well it’s not things like adverts online or Facebook or anything like that. I usually decide I want something and then use technology to buy it not the other way around. If anything, it’s more tv that encourages me, if I saw a film or book advert I might make a purchase because of that.

Insights: receptive to new technologies, but trust in technology is less than trust in humans.

Less receptive to neuro marketing adverts.

Section 1: Needs:

Richard Castro-Parker. Gen Y.

Can I ask the purpose of your social media accounts?

To see what other people are doing.

What is the content that you share the most?

Videos.

Why videos and what kinds of videos?

Things that I see that I like I will share, it varies, funny things interesting things, things that I might have learned something from. Because too many people live on social media, I mean I don’t need to know what you’re having for breakfast or that your cars broken down – I just use it so that people know I’m alive and sometimes I will look at other companies on social media – if they have a presence, to see if I’m going to buy anything from them.

Are you selective about who you share this content with?

Yes. Well I probably actually share it with everyone I know. I am selective to a point – I think we’re – well myself we think we’re being selective but then we realise, oh I’ve liked that company, I’ve liked that company – you don’t actually realise how much information you’re giving away. Usually its just my friends but I try to follow the odd company – If I like their product.

What forms of social media do you have?

Facebook and twitter No Instagram?

No, I’m not hip and cool.

Would you like to have more followers than you currently do?

I couldn’t care less if you follow me. But then again that might change if I decide to do blogging or anything in the future which I’m looking into. But at the moment, if you follow me you follow me and if you don’t your missing out.

So why would you do blogging and what sort of things would you post?

I would do it for the fun of doing it. If it made me money that’d be great but not because it made me money.

And I probably would have to pick something that I’m interested in and at the moment that’s probably a card game called magic begathering. Id do it for leisure. If I made money that’d be great, that’s the ultimate goal.

Do you think that your social media correctly portrays your identity?

Well it would have to because its me posting things. I don’t portray myself as something I’m not, which many people do do – and you may look and think that they’re having a great wonderful life when actually they’ve got more problems as you do or just as many, so I just post things I like. I don’t try to present myself as anything, I just post things I like – people may think I come across as something, but I’m not intending to.

Do you think that looking at others on social media has a positive or negative effect on you?

For me, both. I think it’s personally neutral for me. But then you can spend your life on social media, and then you start to go, ah look what they’re doing I hate what they’re doing, but why does it matter what they’re doing? It’s not affecting me.

So when you look you don’t feel ever sad?

Well, you try not to but then you realise your bitter at somebody for having something you haven’t got or liking something, you know. But actually, who cares?

Do you think that social media gives people a platform for self-expression or encourages homogeneity?

No – I think that people feel the need to be different when actually they are just like you and they’re just as boring as you are – and they’re trying to be something they’re not. They’re trying to show off the new car – no one cares what car you’ve got, no one cares what you’re doing – but you feel I need to know. Some people are just absolutely being themselves, but I think a lot of the stuff on there we didn’t tell people before social media. It depends who you are, some people are trying to be someone else on social media, some are not.

Section 2: Buying Behaviours Do you consume largely online or instore?

Depends. I would say if not one or the other a mixture of both because sometimes I can’t wait for the thing I need so I won’t buy online, I personally would prefer to look online and then go buy it instore if I can. So, you can use online like a showroom and you can search everything you want and then you can go buy it in the shop, you can go and touch the thing, see the thing. But I’ll usually go to where I can get it the cheapest – and I don’t want to give Amazon any more money.

Please elaborate on that last point for me…

Well, yeah, they’re taking over, they’ll sell you anything you want and everyone thinks oh that’s the greatest shop ever and people are losing their jobs because you don’t need any other shops and they only need a certain amount of workers and I just think its best to spread the money.

What’s more important to you in making a purchasing decision?

1. Price 2.

Speed and convince of purchase 3.

Volume of choice?

Price.

Do you think that shopping online has altered your expectations for all shopping?

For me, I like to think it hasn’t, but you do think, oh why hasn’t the shop got it, I wish they had it, I’ll get it in one day online. I think it has for a lot of people, yeah.

Do you use interactive games, with false purchases, e.g. Sims?

Oh like with online coins. Yes, I have once or twice.

Section 3: Visual testing element What animal would you say you are?

Tiger.

What animal would you say your social media presents you as?

An animal that’s all over the place, I don’t know. A monkey, who just swings from thing to thing and who likes lots of different things.

Describe features of your online personality using three descriptive words?

Addictive – because you’ll scroll through videos because they’re there – but I’ve never, before social media, gone, you know what I want, to watch endless videos of cats or something.

I’m more myself out of social media, because I don’t want to post things on social media, I just post videos and things so it’s difficult to answer.

Describe features of your offline personality using three descriptive words?

Funny, friendly and kind.

What colour would you say you are?

Red Why? Red is my favourite colour. Sometimes I can be heated and passionate and I wear my heart on my sleeve.

What colour would you say your social media presents you as?

Oh probably something boring, blue. Blue’s a quieter colour.

Section 4: Value of technology Please describe your relationship with technology I like technology. I’ve always loved it since I got my first computer in 1995, but I think its devaluing humans a lot, and we feel we’ve got more friends than ever, yes – but you’re not really talking to them, because actually, we call up people and chat to them and use chatting apps, we’re probably lonelier than we have ever been.

So, would you consider yourself to have a healthy relationship with technology?

I think its on the fringes on un-healthiness, because I’ll, particularly with Facebook… because its there, and just because I go to bed I think – oh I’ll just look at this video, and that wakes you up to be honest. It interrupts your sleep pattern, so I think we’re affecting ourselves in that way.

So, do you think that technology actually adds value to your life?

It can be amazing – when you know when to stop. As long as you don’t live an online persona that isn’t yourself.

Do you think that technology adds value to your social status?

No. it can to others though. It can create a falseness, so that they think that they’re better than they are.

Do you think that using technology makes you happy?

Yes and no. Certain things I like, but when I see myself becoming addicted or wanting to do it all the times then I don’t think it does. Its 50/50.

Do you think that sometimes you can have a bit of an obsessive behaviour with it then?

I think everyone does. My mum will look up what people are doing, why don’t you phone up and ask them?

Well, I don’t want them to know that I’m looking- it’s a bit stalkery.

If technology were to disappear tomorrow, would you cope/adjust easily, or do you think of yourself as reliant on technology?

We’re all probably very reliant on it because society is making us reliant on it, like um I’d like to go to the council and pay my bill, oh no can you do that online please. Its good for business because it makes business have less value on people and say, well its cheaper for us to get you to fill out the form, do you it online. So when I was younger I lived without social media and technology, I mean I didn’t have a computer till 1995, when I was about 12, 13, so I think I could still do without it, I mean id miss it but id deal with it.

How many hours do you think you spend using technology per day roughly?

Too many hours, I don’t know id say at least probably two, it adds up throughout the day to at least two, maybe more.

Section 5: Future Behaviours Does the thought of technology eg. Alexa, knowing you so well that it could help you make decisions excite you or scare you?

Hmm. I don’t mind about Alexa, I mean I don’t really care much for it, most of the time I just use it for looking things up on the web.

You have Alexa?

No, I have Cortana , and the google one. I don’t really use it, I don’t use all the features it’s got, I just do web searches. I think it’s a good thing, and I think that if we want the free services we want we have to give something up. What people want, is they want everything for free, but they want their privacy, but they can’t have that. And for these things to work as well, they need your voice data.

So you’re happy to give up your privacy?

Depends what I’m giving up my privacy for.

For a great technology service?

Yes perhaps, I can’t expect things for free and not have to give something, if I’m not willing to give money I have to give something else.

How do you feel about the emergence of automated driverless cars?

They’re good, but I think that dehumanising everything, you can do everything you need without actually having to do anything. So, someone’s born for example, they wont have to learn how to drive, they wont have to do anything, their lives will be automated, so what’s the point to that human being? Are we just becoming consumers?

I mean I don’t mind driverless cars, I think it’s the future, and it could stop more accidents, but I do enjoy driving.

Do you think that in general terms you trust people or technology more?

People. But then again, it’s a 50/50 thing. If they get technology right it can be better than relying on the human mind, but I don’t think it should go that way.

In the year 2050, people have been estimated to be talking to their AI devices more than their spouses, does this come as a shock to you or do you feel like this sort of interaction with technology is already happening today?

Its already happening today. You can go to restaurants and see people at the table not even talking to each other and just looking at their phone, and I think we value our phone too much, um it’s a sad thing to happen, but I think its going to go that way. Hopefully humanity can realise what its losing, because Alexa’s not going to make you feel better about yourself, I mean maybe she will in the future. I hate Alexa because then I know that Amazon is going to know everything about me, what I like. They can sell the data on, they can make money from it, they can work out what I’m interested in so that they can start selling me products I’m interested in, and then they’ll know things that other local shops may not know, so I don’t like the idea that we’ll only talk to our Alexa’s or virtual assistance, but I’m not surprised.

How do you feel about a service by which you could re order essentials by simply asking Alexa, convenient or unnecessary?

Very convenient. Its not unnecessary, its another way to live our lives but I feel that its less personal then going to the shop and meeting people, and it means that some people will live their lives without speaking to any other human beings, and that’s bad for people’s mental being. Plus, I don’t want to give amazon more of my data they have enough of it, they know what I’m doing, they probably know where I am right now.

People think they are just talking to Alexa but actually they are just giving away data to help shape Amazon..

Do you consider that that sort of service makes the need to shop fir essentials obsolete?

No, because if I want toilet roll now, I can’t wait a day for them to deliver it. And I also think shopping can be a past time.

What purchasing decisions would you not want to relinquish to technology?

Hm it depends what you mean by relinquish. I use technology to make my purchasing decisions but then I like to go out and make my actual purchases in the real world. There might be things that are made by an individual, handcrafted, that you can’t really relinquish to technology, so 50/50.

Section 6: Needs What needs does your technology fill?

It probably doesn’t feel any needs, it probably fills a need to know what other people are doing at all times.

Its entertainment, because I’ve played computer games since I was 4 so I enjoy that sort of technology – but if I didn’t have it, I would find another way of living my life, I wouldn’t feel like my life’s over, I think there was periods where I didn’t have a mobile phone, and no one I knew had a mobile phone, and my first mobile phone didn’t have all these features, I don’t think we really need them, they’re nice to have.

You said you’ve been gaming since you were 4, do you think that having all this technology in your life has actually shaped your identity?

I think it probably has in some way, everything we do shapes us. How much I don’t know.

Do you think that having social media and technology helps you to reach self-actualisation and self-esteem?

It depends who you are, it can break your confidence and esteem. It depends, I enjoy it as a vehicle for entertainment, but I feel it is wholly unnecessary.

Would you be happy for AI to take care of all menial shopping takes in the future?

No. Amazon would love you to do that. To have a service in your house that knows when everything runs out. It would be like your energy bills, you don’t really think about changing supplier, and then you just get locked into this thing and you forget that you’re paying for all of this and they can bill you whatever they like, because all your banking is online behind a password that you’ve forgotten. No, I wouldn’t.

Chris Meineck – 26 – Millennial Section 1: Needs Can I ask the purpose of your social media accounts?

Keep in touch with friends and family, and to share important moments in my own life with those who I feel would be interested to hear about it.

What is the content that you share the most?

Predominantly updates on successful pints in my life e.g. Getting a new job etc. also sharing photos of family and generally to check up on what other people are doing and make sure they’re all in a good way and offer my support to them if they’re not.

Would you like to have more followers than you currently do?

No, I am for quality not quantity, so if all of my favourite people in my life follow me, and that accounts to 25 people then I wouldn’t ask for any more than that. I’m not trying to be a celebrity I just want to make sure that I’ve got all my balances in life correct.

Do you think that your social media correctly portrays your identity?

Yes, I in general. Because I like to keep my outlook on life, simple, positive, supportive of others and like everyone I have my occasional downtime and grumpy moments and sadness but those are in fortunately a small proportion to the positivity in my lie and I believe that I convey that ratio pretty accurately on my social media accounts.

So, you post not just about the bad times but the good times too?

Yes rarely, but I will do if I feel it’s significant.

Do you think that looking at others on social media has a positive or negative effect on you?

I personally choose to only see the good in what is shown to me. I think we can all pull away from social media of an evening thinking, wow all my friends have better social lives than me,, but I think that there are al lot of people on social media who dress up their lives to make them seem a lot more happy and jolly and busy than they actually are, and its taken me a long time but I’ve learnt to realise that, and I only choose to mentally digest the best of what I see, so to answer your question, I don’t think anything has a negative impact on me personally anymore.

Do you think that in general, other people’s Identities effect your own personal identity?

Yes, I think every single one of us at least in western civilisation and especially in the modern-day world of social media, internet and technological advances is influenced to some degree, varying degrees, by other people around us in terms of our characterisations, our behaviours, our goals in life and our attitudes to people and to certain situations.

Do you think that this happens through social media?

To some extent yes, but not exclusively Do you think that social media gives people a platform for self-expression or encourages homogeneity?

Platform for self-expression, I never see two people that I feel are the same, people can copy each other but only to some extent. I don’t ever see anyone trying to pretend in the complete way that they are someone else.

Section 2: Buying Behaviours Do you consume largely online or instore?

Half and half – because the internet is convenient, often cheaper, and allows products to be delivered to my home fairly soon after being ordered. And in shops, particularly with clothing, I get to try on the product before buying. I would never buy clothes over the internet because I have no idea whether it will be a good fit. I have no idea of the condition of the materials and if an item is delivered from the internet and its no good, its so much time and effort in sending it back I would have rather payed a bit of money in parking and trudged across the town and picked it up and tried a product in a shop.

What’s more important to you in making a purchasing decision?

1. Price 2.

Speed and convince of purchase 3.

Volume of choice?

Price.

Do you think that shopping online has altered your expectations for all shopping?

Yes. I think all independent stores need to be far more wary of what prices are like online, and I know that that’s easier said than done because of the cost of rent and paying staff etc. However, if they need to stay in business and they cannot compete with the convenience of being able to have products purchased with the flick of a finger whilst the consumer is at work or sitting at home on their sofa using their smartphone or otherwise, they can at least pay more attention to their pricing.

Do you use interactive games, with false purchases, e.g. Sims?

I was on an interactive web based game when I was younger and I wouldn’t say no to doing that again now but its just simply not something I have the time or the interest in right now.

How do you feel about simulated purchase, do you get a kick from it?

Sort of I guess, but nowhere near to the extent of buying something in real life.

Section 3: Visual testing element What animal would you say you are?

I’m a bear, because I can survive perfectly well for certain periods of time on my own, however I enjoy having family around me, I’m soft and cuddly and affectionate but I can also turn round and go into the woods and be grizzly.

What animal would you say your social media presents you as?

I would also say a bear.

Describe features of your online personality using three descriptive words?

Light-hearted, kind and objective Describe features of your offline personality using three descriptive words?

Light-hearted, kind and objective, I am the same on the internet as I am in real life, I am not the sort of ‘15-year-old girl’ who will apply tons of makeup and then spend half an hour worrying about lighting and what top looks best before taking the 15th selfie of that week.

What colour would you say you are?

Blue What colour would you say your social media presents you as?

Blue Section 4: Value of technology Please describe your relationship with technology I’m a slow learner, I use what I need to use but I don’t purchase the latest theology for the sole reason of keeping up with everyone else, if I don’t need something, I don’t buy it.

So, would you consider yourself to have a healthy relationship with technology?

Yes. I’m only as dependent as everyone else is, if I had to go a week without a television or a mobile phone, which of course we are all very much accustomed to – I think I would struggle because of how used to these things I’ve become. I could with time and patience get used to it.

So, do you think that technology actually adds value to your life?

Without it changing my life too much, yes. And I’m not afraid to say that because I don’t think there’s anyone in the world that could answer that and say no.

Do you think that technology adds value to your social status?

No. I’m pretty happy with my social status, and when I literally say I’m going to tape a tv show, I’m literally going to tape a tv show with a tape recorder. I might be 15 years behind everyone else, but I’m not going to spend an extra 100 pounds on buying something new that does the same thing just because everyone else is going to do that.

Do you think that using technology makes you happy?

Yes, but there are other things in life that make me happy that do not depend on use of technology.

If technology were to disappear tomorrow, would you cope/adjust easily, or do you think of yourself as reliant on technology?

Somewhere in between the two, I would, with time and with patience learn to adapt. I think I would possibly be slightly more able to cope with it and with a quicker time frame to adapt than other people of my own age.

Do you think you have a technology addiction?

No. How many hours do you spend per day using technology?

Difficult to answer because I have to it at a computer all day because its my job. However, if I were to be able to choose everything I do throughout the day, I spend approximately 2 hours a day looking at a computer or my phone.

Section 5: Future Behaviours Does the thought of technology e.g. Alexa, knowing you so well that it could help you make decisions excite you or scare you?

I don’t want one. I have a brain. My brain has been honed and not perfected but challenged and developed through my family’s genealogy for hundreds and hundreds of years, I can make decisions on my own. They may not necessarily be the right ones, but I don’t understand what one of these talking robotic companions can do, that’s any easier than looking at a book, gong to the library, phoning somebody and asking them or looking it up on google which I can do in ten seconds.

How do you feel about the emergence of automated driverless cars?

I hate them. They should be banned right now. Because they are dangerous, there is nothing unsafe about cars, only the person that looks after it. The more trust you put into technology, the more that can go wrong when, and I mean when not if, technology fails.

In the year 2050, people have been estimated to be talking to their AI devices more than their spouses…

Great, I hope I’ll be dead by then.

Does this come as a shock to you or do you feel like this sort of interaction with technology is already happening today?

I sincerely hope that it is not already happening today, and if we haven’t all died in a nuclear disaster by then, because at the moment that is simply likely, that that is a cause for disaster and a breakdown of natural relationships and bonding between human beings.

How do you feel about a service by which you could re order essentials by simply asking Alexa, convenient or unnecessary?

Unnecessary, I have a shopping list. I have a pen and I have the back of a receipt, and I write things on it and I go to the shop and my life is great.

Do you consider that that sort of service makes the need to shop fir essentials obsolete?

Yes, but it shouldn’t be happening.

What mundane jobs would you not want to do anymore that could be replaced by technology?

Cleaning! I would buy an automatic robot that cleans the kitchen and bathroom. That is as far as I will go with automated contraptions in my house.

So, you’re happy for it to do your cleaning but you wouldn’t let it do your purchasing?

No, because it might buy the wrong item, it might buy one that’s five pounds more expensive than it would be on a different website, it might put the wrong bank card in, anything could go wrong.

Section 6: Needs What needs does your technology fill?

Entertainment and information.

Do you think that having social media and technology helps you to reach or feel safety, self-actualisation or self-esteem?

I think they encourage my self-esteem because from a really vein perspective, its nice to share a photograph with my friends and family of an achievement or a nice event that has happened in my life, and for lots of people who I love and respect to write positive comments and show their appreciation. It is a confidence boost.

SUSAN ELLIS – 55, BABY BOOMER SEGMENT Section 1: Needs Can I ask the purpose of your social media accounts?

Primarily it was to communicate with groups I belong to, to share photographs, and then to find some insight into my daughter’s lives.

What is the content that you share the most?

Photographs, special occasions etc.

Would you like to have more followers than you currently do?

No – I don’t seek to have a wider circle, I just enjoy the people and the groups I already share with.

Do you think that your social media correctly portrays your identity?

It doesn’t give a full picture of my identity as I don’t post often. It does give a true picture of some aspects I guess.

Do you think that looking at others on social media has a positive or negative effect on you?

I think it can have a negative effect, but also there are positive aspects.

Do you think that in general, other people’s Identities effect your own personal identity?

I think that looking at other people on Facebook for example, if you look at what other people ate doing – it can give a false impression of the life they lead – especially people who record a lot of events – well I don’t so it portrays me as not going to a lot of events, which I do, I just don’t post about it. So in that way, in the computer world, our identities would seem to be very different, and if someone who hadn’t known me for a long time was to look at my Facebook page, they might feel that I wasn’t very sociable etc.

Do you think that social media gives people a platform for self-expression or encourages homogeneity?

I think it depends on the person. I think with a lot of the people I share with. Particularly more artistic or outgoing people you can see different facets and they can exploit different things you wouldn’t normally see which shows you different ways of life. I worry that the teenage population who like to conform for, it might be a driver for homogeneity.

Section 2: Buying Behaviours Do you consume largely online or instore?

I split my different purchases, so I buy food often online, if I has my choice id buy it nearly all online, presents I buy online. I buy clothes and decorative things for the home instore because I like to see the product.

What’s more important to you in making a purchasing decision?

1. Price 2.

Speed and convince of purchase 3.

Volume of choice?

Price is always important.

How do you feel about simulated purchase, do you get a kick from it?

Yes Do you think that shopping online has altered your expectations for all shopping?

It certainly originally always altered my expectations on price, because shopping online always seemed to be cheaper, especially in electrical goods – so that was my main driver originally for driving online. More recently – time pressure of not being able to go to the shops in time because of working life and other restrictions and leisure time as well, has meant I’ve been buying online not just for price but for convenience of not having to go to the store.

Do you/would you use interactive games, with false purchases, e.g. Sims?

Yes Section 3: Visual testing element What animal would you say you are?

A dog, because I’m loyal, I bark, I like to go out with people!

What animal would you say your social media presents you as?

A cat, I don’t appear to be as sociable as I am in real life.

Describe features of your online personality using three descriptive words?

Adventurous, loyal, friendly Describe features of your offline personality using three descriptive words?

Loyal, cheerful, friendly What colour would you say you are?

Yellow What colour would you say your social media presents you as?

A muted yellow.

Section 4: Value of technology Please describe your relationship with technology I like using it, when it’s a good easy customer interface, when its intuitive, I get frustrated if access to it isn’t immediate or it is difficult.

So, would you consider yourself to have a healthy relationship with technology?

Yes, but I have found that I’ve been using it instead of reading a book at night which is kind of the wrong thing. I do find it kind of addictive, you just think well ill just sort this thing out and then while your there you might see something else that may occupy your attention in more of a leisure way, and before you think about it you’ve spent ages on there. My fear is that as we are able to do so much more, we do so much more, but we are now living a faster speed as were able to pay bills quickly etc. so now we have more leisure time but we fill it with more things, and the technology just allows us to do all this, to book days out, to book holidays, to spend money more readily, and because it’s so accessible – we do that, take advantage of that great opportunity, but we are a little bit like rushing from thing to thing – which is making us more in need of things like yoga to calm us down in between. We’re ‘running hot’ if that makes sense.

So, do you think that technology actually adds value to your life?

Yes, technology adds value to my life because it allows me to for example, buy Christmas presents, it allows me to do everything so much easier and quicker when I don’t have the time in my busy life.

Do you think that technology adds value to your social status?

I’m not sure it makes any difference because I’m not a big user of the social medias particularly. It may remind people of my existence – like old uni friends etc.

Do you think that using technology makes you happy?

Sometimes and sometimes not, the majority of the time it allows me to have great opportunities and do more things, purchasing more easily etc. occasionally however it can be force of bad. Making you feel down in the dumps on social media if you aren’t invited to things.

If technology were to disappear tomorrow, would you cope/adjust easily, or do you think of yourself as reliant on technology?

Well, we had a nice time before hand, so I think we would adjust. Its not like their taking away our shelter and medical supplies, for me it’s been a really nice thing to have – but I still had a full life before.

How many hours do you spend per day using technology?

About 1 hour on my phone and maybe an hour watching tv.

Kerri Goodenough. identity only. – Generation Y Can I ask the purpose of your social media accounts?

To be nosy, and to keep up either people and for invites. I don’t use it that much really What is the content that you share the most?

I don’t share really!

Would you like to have more followers than you currently do?

No – because I don’t really use it enough really Do you think that your social media correctly portrays your identity?

No definitely not. Well A, its not complete, I don’t put in - my life is more full than what social media shows, but that’s because I’m enjoying the time that I have. So, it certainly does not show me fully or correctly.

Do you think that looking at others on social media has a positive or negative effect on you?

Negative. Especially when I see things and I’m thinking mm – especially when you know people, and you think, that didn’t happen like that and that’s not how it was or how it is, so I think when you’re a strong person, you can laugh it off, but I’ve actually had situations of people saying, you know, I’ve had to say to people – that’s not real, that’s for a purpose. So yeah, I personally, not negative on me because I’m strong, I realise it’s not real, but for other people - certainly teenagers who are impressionable, um yeah, its quite negative and quite damaging as well.

Do you think that in general, other people’s Identities effect your own personal identity?

Um, I suppose yeah, if I think, that’s a positive influence - I like to take peoples positive and I like to use that.

Do you think that this happens through social media?

Possibly, I think it depends on their character, an individual’s thing. Again, I’ve experienced that from friendship groups and thing actually – not trying to be them, but taking little snippets from them and putting it into themselves.

Do you think that social media gives people a platform for self-expression or encourages homogeneity?

Encourages homogeneity. Because its basically saying, unless you’re like this, then you know, how are you fitting in with everyone you’re not, you’re an outsider. It sets the rules and boundaries for society that everyone should follow and keeps them in place.

INSIGHTS: THE TIME CONUNDRUM. Everyone says they have no time but spending all time on phones.

Focus Group transcription. Millennials.

Louise O’Dowd – 22, student Florence Jacob – 21, student Jessica Lockyer – 22, student Joy Howley – 21, student and blogger.

Can I ask the purpose of your social media accounts?

Florence – I look at it to see what friends are doing, communicate, fashion ideas on Instagram, makeup, that’s about it.

Louise – I use social media for speaking to friends when I’m at Uni, especially friends that live at home that I don’t get to see as much, look at Pinterest for fitness inspo, just for day to day stuff basically.

Jess – I use social media for staying in contact with friends and seeing what their up to Joy – to stay in contact with friends and to make money. My life is on social media (Laughs). No, I use social media to make myself look like a more profound and interesting person that I am I guess, which has gained me a substantial amount of followers so that I am now getting contacted by businesses to do collaborations which means I’m now turning social media into my own business. I guess its just a really big part of my life because of that, and I freaking love it.

What is the content that you share the most?

Florence – so mine’s mostly family, friends, scenery, it’s basically things I do in my day to day life. Its not that interesting compared to other peoples but its my life, so if I go on holiday, if I go to the beach, if my friends come back from Uni, if I go up to see them, its basically a digital picture diary.

Louise – I kind of just post like, I don’t know, pictures of my dogs, or, meeting up with friends. Its not really day to day because I don’t really post a lot, I’m more of like a stalker, I like to look at what other people are doing but I don’t really share what I’m doing.

Jess – I’d say I’m pretty much the same, to the point where I’m actually getting quite good at it (stalking).

Joy – stylised images that I think my followers will find the most entertaining, hair and things like that.

Are you selective about who you share this content with?

Florence – Yeah. I know this is going to sound really silly, but people from school, you know, all those boys and stuff, I don’t really want them to see, you know, but I want my friends to see, the people that I worked with and now don’t anymore, and those sorts of people.

Louise – so, yeah, I’m quite selective on who I want to see things, so I use Snapchat quite a lot, but that way I can specifically chose who I want to see certain things which I quite like. Instagram I’ve turned on private in the last 6 months, so only people I allow to see myself can see me. I’m more selective now than I was when I was younger.

Jess – my Facebook is only people I know, I don’t add or accept anyone I don’t know. I use snapchat the most mainly because I can select who I’m sending that to. But usually its only family and friends that I know can see it.

Joy – I am selective when it comes to my personal social media accounts, Snapchat and Facebook. When it comes to m you tube and Instagram, I’m definitely selective about the content that I post, but I post it with the intention of everyone else seeing it.

Would you like to have more followers than you currently do?

Florence- Id say no, as I have a private account. I guess it is appealing, the thought of it because you see famous people getting thousands of likes and getting paid for it, but however what I post isn’t for that reason, like I said earlier, its more for the digital diary, because I like to look through what I’ve done throughout the year.

Louise – yeah, I don’t really care about the followers, I’m not bothered, it’s for me, it’s not like, for other people, I don’t post things with the intention of, well I do know that other people will see it, but I don’t care if no one likes it, I just do it because I like to see what I’m up to sort of thing. I don’t really want randomers that involved in my life. In fact, I’m looking forward to going through them all and getting rid of some people.

Jess – I’d say I don’t want any more followers, I don’t see the point. If I were to make a business Instagram for design, then I would seek out as many followers as I could, but at the moment I’m at the stage where I’m not too bothered. I mean don’t get me wrong, Instagram likes would be appreciated, just so I don’t look so sad, the likes wouldn’t go amiss, without sounding stupid – so I don’t look so pathetic (laughs). There’s a thing where people think that if they don’t have a lot of likes on Instagram that they don’t really have any social value, so I always aim for at least 11 and then hope for the best, but in terms of followers I don’t really care.

Joy – I want as many followers as possible, but not on my personal account. Its beneficial to me because more followers does give me a higher social status reading, so that more people can be intrigued into seeing my content, and then therefore more companies are approaching me. Personally, it helps me financially to have more followers.

Do you think that your social media correctly portrays your identity?

Florence – I think it does slightly because you only post the good stuff. I mean you wouldn’t post a bad day would you. You only post good things about your life. So, I guess, whenever I post things, it looks like I have an amazing time, when that’s not always true, for example, when we were on holiday, we all had the shits, but no one knew! I feel like people do get depressed sometimes when they look at other people and what they’re doing, but like I said they would never post a bad day, so I do think it tells a lot, it doesn’t show the whole person, it only shows one side. Its not humanised.

Louise – yeah, I suppose it does kind of portray your identity but as Florence said, like, only the good bits, and obviously I don’t post 24 hours a day, so you only see certain parts. And then probably, some of the stuff I’ve posted in the past, wouldn’t be stuff I’d post now. So like people may think of me from what I’ve posted in the past, but I’ve grown since then and changed, so I do think it can be quite misleading.

Jess – I would say it depends what social media you look at, Snapchat is definitely me, because that’s the thing I post on the most and I will post random crap like being in bed and my dinner.

Florence – I agree on that one!

Jess – So Snapchat is definitely me, Instagram is more selective.

Joy – I agree with Snapchat, Snapchat is fully me, I’m disgusting on Snapchat. But it’s because I know that its only there for a limited about of time, so I know that people will see it once, they’re not going to care, and also, you can see if someone screenshots it as well, or even if they’ve seen it, so you’ve got more control I guess. But with Instagram its 100%, it’s not me, it’s what I strive to be, I look like a much better person on Instagram than what I am in real life, so people on Instagram, like today I’m sick, my post today is not me being sick, its oh no I feel so ill, but I look fabulous in bed with a full face of makeup on, because I think personally for me Instagram is meant to be the ideal whereas Snapchat is the reality. I think that at least 50% of my personality is online. I would say my offline personality is more important to me, but 60% offline and 40% online – I would say I really do value my online personality and if anything were to happen to destroy that I would be really upset that my online personality has been shown in a bad light.

Do you think that looking at others on social media has a positive or negative effect on you?

Florence – I think they do, like I said before, you see people doing amazing stuff and it makes you feel quite negative about yourself, where people will put up body photos of themselves and they’ll be like airbrushed and photoshopped, and it’s like, why can’t I look like that, and then you start to feel really shit. But then again, places like Missguided have started to show people with like, stretchmarks and its more humanised, and it’s like that’s an actual body, so you start to feel positive again, so it’s a constant push and pull, it’s like, do I want to look like that or do I want to look like this? What one’s real and what one’s fake? So, I feel like it’s a constant mix of emotions, and I don’t feel like you truly believe what you see either, is it real or is it fake? And then I feel like I compare myself, so I see people with like amazing hair but then it’s probably a professional’s done it and I can’t achieve that.

Does that make you feel less of yourself?

It kind of does because, even when I got my hair and makeup done the other day, and I got a great phone to take a really nice photo, it makes the world of difference. Whereas if I tried to do it on my shitty phone, I wouldn’t achieve that. Its constantly comparing myself to other people and trying to be like them, but the battle to get like that, you don’t know how they’ve done it – I can’t describe it, but it’s because they use stuff, like airbrush and good lighting, its not real. I don’t know, its both positive and negative.

Louise – My answer is kind of the same, like negative and positive. But I kind of feel like with age, I’ve kind of understood that what you see is not what you get, kind of thing. So, everyone kind of posts the ideal. When I was younger I thought everyone has these perfect lives, and it did kind of make me feel like, oh, I’m just this girl from Bournemouth and like, I’m not this amazing model that goes off jetting around the world, but as I’ve gotten older it doesn’t really affect me that much, and sometimes I’ll view it as a positive thing, like especially me trying to get of my lardy ass and become fitter, so like I’ll see photos of people and yeah, they’ll have like really nice arms or really good abs and oh I want that. But its more like a positive motivation for me rather than a negative like, oh I can achieve that.

Joy – so I completely agree with Louise, it used to be a negative thing for me where I would panic of social media an see images of other people. But since I’ve learned how easy it is to fake what your life actually is, I see images of others as motivation – people who are doing amazing things, who are – leading amazing lives and I take that as my inspiration for life, that’s my motivation, so actually for me its definitely positive, because if I didn’t see that I think id be like, id settle for a life in the environment that I see realistically. Whereas social media, I think it allows you to see the bigger picture, and be like, wow I could achieve so much more than I could if all I saw was a little town in the south of England.

Jess – I would say its positive in the sense that I can keep in contact with everyone that I want to keep in contact with. So like Facebook has messenger and I must have at least 5 group chats where I can keep in contact.

So during placement, there wasn’t many people around so I really didn’t have that many people to talk to, so it kind of kept me upbeat and it almost kept me social, so I could see what was going on with everyone and still talk to friends. Negative I would say is, its obvious that people actually don’t live like that but I think that overall it does have a negative effect but not on our generation, it’s the younger generations, so like my cousins are obsessed with social media. So, like, they’ll always take photos, always do things and they’ll comment, asking me if I think this persons pretty or this persons pretty – based on their makeup and the way they dress and the way they’ve taken the photo and the angle they’ve taken the photo at.

So, not really their actual attractiveness, but the way they have presented themselves?

Yeah, just the way they present themselves on social media, so for example at Christmas my cousin was round, she kept showing me pictures of girls her age, that had taken photos of themselves in a lace bra and put it on Instagram, because that’s what that generation do, she’s 15. That’s what they’re doing, because that’s what social media has made them to be.

So, they’re digital identity is more important than their offline identity?

Yeah, in that sense its really bad and I don’t agree with it. But at the same time, as you get older, you start to realise that that’s not what it should be.

Do you think that’s because your age group caught social media at the right time?

Yes. I would say that we were in the brink between technology and Tamagotchi’s and all that sort of stuff, like Slinky’s down the stairs. We were in the generation where technology wasn’t very advanced. So, we understand the difference between virtual reality and actual reality.

Louise – and for us actually technology isn’t like the be all and end all Jess – so its definitely the way we’ve been brought up, and because, well now you get a phone at the age, what 7 at least. I wasn’t allowed a phone until I was about 12.

Florence – when I was a teaching assistant, the kids were all getting phones around age 7, which is year 3.

Jess – Yeah, so, because of the way people are brought up, to me, if I see images of where people have gone, it makes me want to go there, whereas I think for younger generations, they might not see it as a negative, but it does have a negative effect because they see what they think they should be doing, and they try and copy it.

They don’t realise that its not actual life.

Florence – I was going to say, that when I worked as a teaching assistant, in a school kids were coming in with an iPhone aged 7, that’s year 3, and they all had Instagram, because they would try and add us teachers on Instagram, which shows that they’re starting at the age of 7! They’re starting at a younger age than us which is probably why they are trying to be more advanced. We started about 13 -14.

Do you think that social media gives people a platform for self-expression or encourages homogeneity?

Florence – I think it does, but once again, I think it depends on what life you live. So everyone could have the same like, Instagram, really plain, really simple, but it depends what level you want to take it, for example, if you’re a model and you’ve got a business for fashion you’ll post of lot of things like that on their which obviously means you’ll get a lot more followers, and stuff like that. I don’t know, I feel like no individual’s the same.

Louise- okay, I feel like everyone tries to promote their individuality on social media but it gets to the point where like, everyone’s the same, peoples posts are like all the same and people try to have this ideal that everyone else is posting, so they’ll alter themselves, but say like, oh yeah I’m being so individual, but they’re just following what everyone else is doing, so I think that their hiding their homogeneity, but trying to be individual at the same time, like they’re trying to be individual but by doing that their not being individual if that makes sense.

Jess – I completely agree with that, I think that people are so caught up with this whole, like concept of being ‘indie’ that they don’t actually realise that they’re just making clones of each other.

Joy – yeah, I completely agree but I think that Instagram, promotes self-expression only in the top ten percent. Because with Instagram, the only way that your successful is or the only reason why people want to follow you is because your different, but once every single niche is covered, no one can be different, like there is still some niches that can be uncovered, like recently I found this intersex person on Instagram, so they have their accounts about intersex people which is a niche that hasn’t been filled yet, so they suddenly jumped up like that, but I think, for the top 10 percent who have something interesting about them, for sure, but for the average person there’s no way that you can be interesting on social media.

Louise – but I feel like the top 10 percent set the trends that everyone else just follows. So, the top ten percent can afford to be individual but then everyone else is just like sheep, and they try to be the same as, so for like the people who already have loads of followers, they can be as individual as they like because they know that everyone is going to be the same as them.

Joy – because they see, that that one thing that that person has done has brought them more followers, so they think, 100 percent, I need to do that too.

Section 2 – Buying behaviours Do you consume largely online or instore?

Florence – I do most of my browsing online, but I tend to go to the shop if its nearby, so most of my stuff is from like, Topshop and H&M and Primark, but I would say that the majority of its from the shop.

Louise – if I’m buying clothes or food or whatever I will go to the shop, but I basically buy most of my stuff on amazon, so I would say maybe more online So, do you have amazon prime?

Yes, I use it because I’m a uni student, so I can get it half price for three years, I dunno, just next day delivery is so easy, and you get all the films, and stuff which I use sometimes, I dunno it was a good deal and I used it a lot so I thought It was a good deal and value for money, cause I basically do like all my shopping for presents and stuff on amazon, just day to day stuff, its my first port of call.

Jess – I would actually say that I do most of my purchasing online, but I do it based on shops that I can actually go to, so I’m a bit of a cheapskate and I refuse to pay delivery so I will get it so its click and collect, so I will order it from shops that I can go to store and pick it up, but it will mainly be like, Zara. So, all of my Christmas shopping I did MAC online, Zara online, Argos, for all of my Christmas stuff, everything was online, for Christmas, for birthdays, so I can pick it up instore.

So, what’s so attractive about buying online?

Jess: It’s just quick, I’m one of those people that, if I go into a shop, I get very distracted, and I could spend three hours in Topshop without even thinking about it, easily. So, to save time, cause I’m at uni all the time, I don’t have time to just nip to the shops, so I will order it and only go to the shop to buy what I’ve ordered, and ill usually do it out of convince so if I know I’m going somewhere, I know I will go to that store to get it delivered for that time to pick it up while I’m doing other stuff. The only other things I use, I use amazon a lot so ill go on amazon and order stationary, I have prime as well, I have the student account, but I got it for free for a year. Yeah, so I buy a lot on amazon, and if its prime, if I need something quickly, ill always go to amazon first. So, for me I use it more as a convenience. The only time I ever shop instore is if I’ve got free time which is, never, and if I know I won’t be able to get delivery in time, I will go to store. Oh, one more thing, there’s a lot more choice online than there is instore, especially as we live in quite a remote little town.

Joy – It depends where I am, when I live in London I definitely shop instore as I have all the great stores on my doorstep and I’m a bit of an instant gratification kind of person, so I love, I need that instant gratification of if I want something now, I’m gunna go and get it now, rather then order something online and wait four days for it to arrive. So I would say that I don’t online shop apart from the occasional amazon purchase, but that’s purely for price reasons, but when I come to Bournemouth I have to shop online because I just don’t have those choices anymore, all the shops here are terrible apart from Primark and Zara.

What’s more important to you in making a purchasing decision?

1. Price 2.

Speed and convince of purchase 3.

Volume of choice?

Florence – I’d say price Louise – that’s hard. Id probably say speed and convenience Jess – id say price, but then for speed and convenience I am willing to pay an extra three pounds or something Joy – volume of choice.

Do you think that shopping online has altered your expectations for all shopping?

Florence– I think it has, because obviously when you go to the shop you don’t see the whole collection, and I feel like that obviously gives you a much smaller choice and I just think it has altered all shopping because you can just see everything online. Like misguided has thousands of items, but then you might go to Topshop which has a smaller collection but is also more expensive. I mean, it has altered shopping but that’s just the way the world works now, and you’ve got to pick and choose if you want, quality or quantity I guess.

Louise – like Florence said, you do have so much choice, walking into a shop you’re never going to have all the different options available at all the different price points, but I feel like if there was a shop like that it would just be overwhelming. So, I am glad that there’s the differentiation between going into a shop which is a bit more personal, and like less choice but you go shopping as an experience but whereas online, you have lots of choice, but you wouldn’t say that you go online shopping, it depends what I want but I wouldn’t say its altered my expectations in shops because I would say its totally different.

Jess – I think it has because I will go online because there’s always deals online and not so much instore, I’ll basically go online because I want the deals. Personally, I still love going shopping for the experience, the only factor that has really changed is the experience.

Joy – Do you want an answer from me, because I feel like I feel exactly the same as jess, so maybe if you can just put ‘same’ and then I can get back to my Instagram because I’m just planning out my next weeks posts.

Section 3: Visual Testing Lets start with Joy… What animal would you say you are, or that represents you the most?

Joy: a puppy because I have an incessant need for people to like me, but I can get angry if I need to.

What animal would you say your social media presents you are?

Like, an artic fox because its so clean and neat Please explain the difference between them…

So, my real personality is definitely a lot more sweet and maybe a little bit more eager to please whereas online I think I come across as a little bit more confident, a confident woman who has her life together but who is also fun and bouncy and friendly, which I am in real life but I think that the negative aspects of my personality aren’t shown.

Flo, what animal would you say you are, or that represents you the most?

Flo: I am an elephant, because they are very caring animals, and they are very emotional, and they do remember things And your social media?

Hmm id probably say a very confident animal, so maybe like some sort of cat, with the sass and confidence.

Louise, what animal would you say you are, or that represents you the most?

Louise: I’d say that I’m a tiger, because I like being independent and I don’t require other people, I like being alone, but I am happy with others. I’m caring towards my family, I feel like tigers are pack animals.

And your social media?

A sloth? Because all I do is eat and sleep. All I put on snapchat is either me, sat in bed watching films or me eating food, so like, how is it indifferent? Well I feel like maybe I tone down the tiger qualities on my social media.

Jess, what animal would you say you are, or that represents you the most?

Jess: I would definitely say I’m a dog. Loyal but also needs trust.

And your social media?

A dog, I’m pretty much the same.

Section 4: Technology and Behaviour Please describe your relationship with technology?

Florence: It’s a massive part of my life because it’s the main part of communication with my friends and part of my family, yeah, its massive.

Louise: its also a massive part of my life because I even track my sleep using technology, so really, I’m basically using it every moment of my waking life, I like talk to people and stuff, I think it pays a bigger part in my life than I realise it does. I’m actually quite reliant on technology.

Jess: I would say that doing the course I’m doing, I have to be good at technology, so in that sect it is a massive part of my life because everything I’m designing will involve technology in one way or another. So, every day I have to consider technology and every day I use it to communicate, so it is a massive part of my life, but I also resent that because I think that we rely on it too much.

Joy: Social media is everything to me (laughs), purely because it is the only way I can communicate with my friends, it is the only way I can keep up to date with trends and what’s going on in the world, politically and aesthetically. Also, I am currently making money off it so it makes sense for me to continue to do that and if becomes my final source of income then that is my job; social media will become my job.

Would you consider yourself to have a healthy relationship with technology?

Florence: I would because I’ve been using the app moment, which tracks phone activity, and from what use, which is only 2 hours a day – that is less than other people, I think that its healthy.

Louise: I think I use it a bit too much, but I get what I want out of it and I can draw myself away if I need to. So yeah, I think it’s healthy.

Jess: I think that people think that they use it a healthy amount, but they don’t actually realise how much they rely on technology. If the Wi-Fi goes down and they literally lose all communication, they freak. I ran out of data and people couldn’t get hold of me when I was out, and they were panicking. I mean, I still had the ability to phone and text and them me, but that’s just the internet part. I personally use a lot of technology, especially in my course, I think I use it too much – but then again, I think that everyone does.

Joy: I have the most unhealthy relationship with technology. I am consistently on my phone and if I can’t find my phone I panic because I know there’s things that I need to be doing that I can’t do with it i rely on it to do all my work, my uni work, my social media work, just everything – and I am a complete millennial and proud of it.

Do you think that we use technology as a form of escapism? Or would you disagree?

Florence: 100 percent.

Jess: even today, when I was revising, I was using my phone to procrastinate and escape doing my work. I use everything to relax.

Florence: all the time, I use it when I’m ill to forget that i’m ill, when I’m sad to make me happy – yeah, all the time.

Out of interest, does that escapism, ever encourage you to purchase, or does it not effect it?

Joy: I think it does Florence: yes it definitely does, if your having a bad day, or you think you don’t look good or something, you might just go online to buy something to make you feel better, like a nice top or something like that, or even look up how I could do my hair differently.

Louise: I would say that’s totally opposite to me, I don’t find that if i’m in a bad mood I’ll buy stuff. If I don’t feel good about myself I won’t buy clothes because it will make me even more sad.

Jess: I watch TV to escape.

Louise: me too, all the time.

So, does TV, watching adverts, does that ever encourage you to consume or no?

Jess: no, I just get annoyed by adverts Joy: yep id probably say it does How do you feel about marketed adverts that use cookies, for example on social media?

Jess: it reminds me that I need to buy stuff I guess, so its not all a bad thing.

Louise: that freaks me out though, I’ll be looking for something and then a week later, it will remind me – that’s freaky. Your tracking me – what the hell.

Do you think that technology adds value to your life?

All: Yes. Why?

Florence: it gives you some purpose to your life Jess: I would say that my job is technology, so it gives me employment.

Joy: it decreases loneliness Jess: I think it makes you think it decreases loneliness, but in the long run it doesn’t.

Louise: I think there’s more value in writing a letter, because there’s more thought that’s gone into it, its more meaningful and personal.

So, do you think that technology dilutes the value of message?

Louise: Yeah kind of, because when I was younger I used to have to phone people on the home phone. I mean I still get the value out of it because I’m communicating with the people that I want to, but in the past, I feel like maybe sending letters was a bit more meaningful.

Do you think that technology adds value to your social status?

Jess: No, not for me. I mean it might change what others think about my, but what I think about myself it doesn’t change.

Florence: I think it does, because most people – if you put up a photo and for example it gets less than 11 likes, a high majority of people would then take that photo down because they’d get embarrassed by the fact it hasn’t got enough likes. I know a lot of people who would take it down.

Joy: I mean if my photo got less than 80 likes I would take it down, but then I get an average of about 150.

Louise: I agree with jess.

Do you think that not having an online presence would affect your social status?

Florence: I think it would because when we were in school, I remember Emily and ruby didn’t have Facebook, and inviting them to stuff would be really difficult, sometimes you would forget to invite them, so they would be forgotten.

Joy: you almost forget about the person if they don’t have social media.

If technology were to disappear tomorrow would you cope/adjust easily, or do you think of yourself as very reliant?

Joy: I wouldn’t cope Jess: I wouldn’t cope Florence: yeah, it would be awful Louise: I feel like it would be hard, but you would adjust. Like I feel like it would be awful for a bit and then everyone would get used to it.

Florence: the older generation would be fine, but we would struggle I think.

How many hours do you spend using technology per day, including TV, laptop time etc.?

Florence: mines roughly 5 hours a day.

Louise: See I track my sleep, so I probably use it like 18 hours a day including TV time and phone time.

Jess: I do use it a lot, at least 12 hours including uni Joy: Definitely 18 – maybe more. I mean I use just my phone for 6.5 hours every day.

Do you think you have a technology addiction?

Florence: Yes Louise: probably yes, well – I don’t think I’d say I have an addiction until you took it away, and then I probably would struggle Jess: I mean I don’t think I do, but probably deep down I do.

Joy: yes Jess: I would struggle to get by in a world where everyone was using technology and I wasn’t.

Section 5: Future behaviours Does the thought of technology knowing you so well that it helps you make decisions, excite you or scare you?

Florence: that scares me, because a computer is literally taking over your life.

Louise: yeah, that scare me as well. I feel like technology that doesn’t have a thought process or feelings couldn’t do that for me.

Insight: don’t like the idea of robots taking over their lives, but ignorant to the fact they spend 7+ hours using technology per day. Same thing. In denial. More precious about purchasing decisions they are entitled to than their time?

How do you feel like the emergence of automated driverless cars?

Joy: No, not up for that, I’m not going to lie.

Jess: I don’t like it, because, one it would probably put my dad out of business, being an instructor, and two, I think that technology, yes it’s great, but it’s not as reliable as we all think it is, so it could have a shortage – something could go wrong with the electronics inside the car, and then what happens, if you don’t know how to drive a car, how are you going to be able to save yourself?

Louise: It’s unsafe, technology isn’t fool proof.

Jess: I mean, don’t get me wrong, id love my car to be able to come and pick me up!

Amazon has introduced a new service by which you can re order essentials through simply asking Alexa, how do you feel about this, convenient or unnecessary?

Joy: convenient

Louise: Convenient Florence: I think its unnecessary because what’s wrong with going to the shops. However, I imagine for an old person who can’t get out, or someone like that, it would be very convenient for them, I think it depends on your scenario.

Joy: not even an old person, I need it because if I go to the sop I often forget to buy everything I need Florence: Yeah, but we’re also losing our independence, why are we making robots do things for us?

Would you consider that this makes the need to shop for essentials obsolete?

Joy: Yes, absolutely Louise: Yeah Would you be happy for essentials to be automatically re stocked by amazon?

Florence: not a good thing because sometimes you won’t use it all up, or you won’t want to buy a certain thing again. You might be going on holiday, you might have family down, you might need more, you might need less.

Louise: I think it’s a really great ideal Jess: I think its great in the sense that if I ran out of milk it would be lovely for it to appear, or just to turn up at my door. But I also think, if you going to start doing that, you might as well start doing that with everything and that’s just stupid.

Louise: and also, people have jobs of working in shops and I dunno, if you made technology be able to do everything then it would be good for some people and bad for others.

What mundane jobs would you not want to do any more that could be replaced by robots?

Joy: Taking out the bins, they could do that.

Jess: A cleaning robot would be great.

Louise: Yeah that would be so – ugh changing the sheets, oh my god. Yeah, a robot can do all that.

Insight: Happy for a robot to alter and help with environment you live in but less likely to accept trust or help for purchasing food.

What purchasing decisions would you not want to relinquish to technology?

Joy: Like, personal items. Actually, I wouldn’t like to give any purchasing decisions to technology. I don’t like something else taking away my money.

Jess: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. I wouldn’t want anything to be out of my control.

Louise: I don’t mind if I control the technology to go and buy something for me, but I wouldn’t want it to have the decision making.

Would you consider that perhaps, with the way neuro marketing is right now, we actually don’t have free will?

Louise: No, because I don’t think it works. I don’t see an advert for something I’ve been talking about and think oh yeah, I need to go and buy that Jess: it sometimes does make me buy things.

Would you ever purchase something, just to look cool on social media?

Joy: Absolutely.

Jess: No Louise: No Do you think in that way then joy, that technology to some extent has a control over your purchasing power?

Joy: ummm, yeah, I would say so yeah.

Section 6: Needs.

What needs does your technology fill?

Florence: I think it does, shopping online is filling basically psychological needs and then communicating with your family via message is live both safety and love and belonging.

Louise: I wouldn’t say esteem though, for some, technology can lower your esteem.

Jess: for me I feel like social media feels my need for safety, to know where my friends are and what’s going on.

Joy: that for me too, but also self-actualisation and esteem.

Which element of technology that you interact with, encourages YOU to purchase the most?

Florence: mainly social media, so when you look at something, it pops up on the side.

Joy: for me its social media but not because of the adverts, because I see what’s cool, and I want to copy that.

Jess: Pinterest gives me lots of ideas for things I could buy or design.

Focus Group Generation Z Helen – age 36 Alexandra – age 39 Sarah - age 48 Jasmine – age 36 1.

Can I ask the purpose of your social media accounts?

Helen – I use social media to look at what my friends are doing and post about my life.

Alexandra – I don’t use social media very often only to look at what other people are doing, I sometimes get tagged in posts which annoys me because I can’t control what media that’s being and put up about me click.

Sarah – I use social media quite a lot to post about my life my holidays pictures with my friends I use it to stay in touch with people I haven’t seen in a while and to stay in contact via group chats with my friends I also enjoy Facebook for the memes which I find really funny and the videos it’s good way to stay in contact with the world and find out what’s going on.

Jasmine – I use Instagram more than I use Facebook I like to post lots of photos of my life experiences I’ve had, and I really do like Instagram because I like to get inspiration of like make-up and beauty and I find it really enjoyable form of social media. So, I guess I use it mostly for sharing and for inspiration for fashion and beauty.

2.

What is the content that you share the most?

Helen – I probably mostly share funny things - things that I find amusing, like funny videos on my timeline I don’t post anything too serious or vein, I really hate it when people post loads about their lives I find it quite arrogant and self-obsessive but I do like to let people know when a major life event is going on.

Sarah – just pictures of me and my family or events like if I have an anniversary or anything really, I just like to keep people updated on what’s going on with me, so they don’t have to go through individually all my friends and tell them what’s new in my life it’s quite a good showing platform with a close-knit circle.

Alexandra – I don’t really share media I just use it to look at what other people are doing.

Jasmine – I just use it to be a little bit nosy and also to post about myself and my life.

3.

Are you selective about who you share this content with?

Helen – well I just share with my friends I don’t add anyone I don’t know.

Sarah – me too.

Alexandra – yes, I would never accept anyone I didn’t know sometimes I go through and delete people that aren’t very close to me anymore because I don’t want to see about their lives when it’s relevant to me.

Jasmine – yeah, I agree in terms of Facebook but, on Instagram I like to have my profile open and not on private so that anyone can follow me - it always looks good to have a lot of followers with Instagram; the more the better.

4.

Do you think that your social media correctly portrays your identity?

Alexandra – no not really because I don’t post that much so you probably don’t get to see all of what I really like my personality is really like.

Helen – yeah, I would say that the people that know me in real life would say pretty much the same I don’t think I act any differently online that I would face-to-face so I’d say yes Jasmine – I mean it probably betrays that I’m having more fun than I actually am (laughs). I mean, you only post the really good times I’m not going to post when I’m sitting in my pyjamas at home so in that sense, no.

But I don’t think I look massively different online.

Sarah – I wouldn’t say it does, but I also wouldn’t say there doesn’t because I don’t post things that aren’t representative to me, but I also don’t think it gives a good enough picture of what I’m really like.

5.

Do you think that looking at others on social media has a positive or negative effect on you?

Jasmine – I mean, I get both pleasure and pain from it I guess. I love looking at inspirational posts, they make me feel good and give me motivation to lose weight, which I see as a positive. But then it also goes the other way I look at people with perfect lives, and it makes me feel sad and depressed, when really, it’s not true.

People aren’t actually living like that, but because it seems like they are, you come away feeling down in the dumps, so sometimes I have two distance myself from social media’s, so they don’t fall for it. I think on young people particularly it can be quite damaging.

Sarah – I think it’s awful. I think it is very damaging for young people like Jasmine said, this is why I don’t post a lot - I don’t think that boasting online adds to your life in any way. But saying that I do like looking at other people seeing what others are up to is always fun - so as long as you know how to safely use social media it’s fine.

6. ty?

Do you think that social media gives people a platform for self-expression or encourages homogenei-

Jasmine – I feel like it encourages self-expression. It certainly encourages self-expression in me. I see other people post photos and crazy outfits, and inspires me to dress the same. I think it gives me more confidence to be more out there and to express myself rather than conform.

Sarah – I don’t think it really encourages me to express myself. Because I get so annoyed about other people expressing themselves so much on Facebook particularly if anything, it stops me from expressing myself – because I don’t want to be annoying, so I don’t post. I think my Facebook is pretty boring, pretty bland and homogenous I guess.

Buying behaviours 1.

Do you consume largely online or instore?

Helen – a bit of both really Jasmine – mostly online

Alexandra – mostly instore, I don’t trust buying online as much, you never know if things are going to be bad quality or the right size if its clothes Sarah – a mixture of both, food shopping I do online and have done for many years to save time, but like Alex, I wouldn’t necessarily buy clothes online as I wouldn’t trust it and it would be effort and time to send it back if it wasn’t right.

1.

What’s more important to you in making a purchasing decision. Price, speed and convenience of purchase, or volume of choice.

Jasmine – volume of choice Sarah – speed and convenience Helen – price Alexandra - price 2.

Do you think shopping online has altered your expectations for all shopping? Why?

Jasmine – definitely, I now expect more from stores because online is so easy and have a much larger range Sarah – I don’t think it has taken away my love of shopping instore, I still value it as an experience.

Helen – yes, more than we realise it. I think it is killing the high street slowly but surely.

Visual testing element 1.

What animal are you?

Jasmine – leopard Helen – a grizzly bear Alexandra - a turtle Sarah – I don’t know – a bird 2.

What animal would you say your social media presents you as?

Jasmine – a tiger Helen – a hare Alexandra – a monkey Sarah – a mouse

Value of technology 1.

Please describe your relationship with technology

Jasmine – great, I mean I definitely use it too much but I think it’s great and very meaningful in my life Alexandra – I think it’s too addictive and can waste a lot of precious time. It sucks you in. But obviously I like to use it.

Helen – same as Alex really for me.

Sarah – personally I would say it is very beneficial in my life, it speeds up a lot of processes for me and allows me to communicate with others so I don’t see it as a bad thing.

2.

Would you consider yourself to have a healthy relationship with technology?

Jasmine – probably not, no, I use it way too much for my own good, I always think, for the amount of time I spend on my phone I could have done something meaningful – like learn a new language, but then again, its downtime for me, and learning a new language is not.

Helen – I try and avoid overusing it, I think I’m mostly in control of my usage.

Alexandra – like I said, it sucks you in, but I think I have a control on how much I use and am aware of how much time it can waste.

Sarah – I probably have more of an unhealthy relationship with it then I actually realise, if I went out without my phone I would 100% feel lost.

3.

Do you think that technology adds value to your life?

All agree yes.

4.

Do you think that the technology adds value to your social status?

Sarah – yes a little bit, because if I just met someone and they didn’t have any social media I would think that they were a little bit odd or behind the times, which may make me think they weren’t very cool! Very superficial of me I know, but I just think that it’s the world we live in now, you meet someone, and you add them on Facebook.

Jasmine – yes 100% Helen – I actually disagree a little, I wouldn’t judge someone for not having social media as personally I don’t use it much either!

Alexandra – hmm I think it does add value. If I were to post if I was at a music concert or something, it would sort of boost my social status as people would think I had a life! Ha! 5.

Do you think that the use of technology makes you happy?

Alexandra – I have to say yes. It benefits me but also, I think sometimes it can make you sad when you compare yourself to others, but overall I think it does make me happy, yes.

Helen – agreed. It’s not nice to see others having a better time than you, when the reality is, is that it’s probably all fake!

Jasmine -

Focus group Baby boomers Wendy Holt 52 Sandy Nicholson 56 Doug Nicholson 53 Julian Barber 63 Susan Josey 55 Can I ask you the purpose of your social media accounts?

SN keeping up with what’s going on with the friends and family WH friends and family and trends.

DN the same.

JB the same and being nosey.

What is the content that you share the most on social media?

S I don’t share D doesn’t share.

W diving and sustainable energy.

If you were to share would you be selective about who you share your content with or do you share it globally.

All said selective JB said very selective.

Would you like to have more followers than you currently do?

S Do not have many followers D of no interest not interested in using social media for self-promotion Do you think that your social media correctly portrays your identity?

S No don’t put much on W I don’t share a lot but it does represent my identity I don’t share a lot of personal details. I don’t share a lot but it is true reflection of my identity Do you think that looking at others social media as a positive or negative effect on you?

W Neither S it can be both it can be both positive and negative. It depends what you read and what you choose to read.

Lots of people is it as a bit of fun. And there are certain people who use it to moan about political things my babies just smiled et cetera I had to defriend people because of political comments

W I have defriended People because of political comments and for swearing too much.

SJ so I suppose what we are saying is that there can be a negative effect but we are quite happy to deal with it.

Quite quickly if we feel that that is not the right direction.

Do you think that in general other peoples identities affect your own identity?

S no W Other peoples identities do not affect my own identity.

Do you think that this happens through social media.

All believe that social media identities do not affect their own identity.

Do you think social media gives people a platform for self-expression or encourages homogeneity?

W I think that what you put on social media and who you follow gives you more of that same so you are getting a blinkered view J I think a lot of it is tongue in cheek and humour that’s what you use it for and that’s five when you get someone who is using it for political reasons that’s why you unfriend them because it’s not what you want to use it for. So I think if you’re liking or viewing something then it will throw more of the same sorts of things at you. Before you even know it really before you even realise it you’re not seeing what other people are seeing because you’re saying something in the stream you’re interested in W I’ve got 100,000 dogs on my stream and I’m not even interested in dogs. All the memes to drive you mad.

Doug are we talking about the whole range of things Facebook Instagram Twitter. Yes we are talking about all types of social media. Wendy I think we’ve established that all of us here only have Facebook. That’s definitely an age thing.

D if you look at the whole range of stuff Then the question is to really because the different media platforms are different for examples Facebook you share a lot more info Twitter is more comment on Instagram you might share photos so the younger people might share an outfit that’s very important and seeing that outfit might encourage sales maybe.

S I think if we are talking about people on the platform and self-expression and I think it does everybody puts their own opinion out on social media Doug says the whole point of social media is for people to give their own opinion sue but I wouldn’t be very overt giving my political pinion opinion in case I offended someone or it just seems too.

D in case there were repercussions J I just treat it as a bit of fun.

D but Twitter is all about giving your opinion that’s the whole point of it you’ve got 40 characters or words to express yourself.

S I think this is going to marketing angle I do often see things for sale like I’m in the Sobo Southbourne group and now people start to recommend things I was getting that people were actually pushing products on what was meant to be a community group places to eat and stuff like that Space Sunday when I said this it was about the public and private spheres and people are now living in the public sphere instead of in the private sphere even to the point where people are having telephone conversations on public transport giving out such a lot of information in a public arena that’s what the Internet and social media does for us

Section 2: buying behaviours Do you consume largely on line or instore?

S for me it is 95 percent online Wendy I buy 90 percent online so I would say 50-50 D I would say 90 percent in a store that’s because Sandy does all the Internet shopping (Sandy and Doug are married).

Julian I buy groceries in store the rest of it is most mostly online.

Julian, do you buy clothes online?

J That’s the one thing I don’t like buying online Sandy I buy clothes online I buy everything online even food I get a Sainsbury’s delivery Wendy I get food online Sandy that’s why I’m 95 percent for me I can’t get out and about that’s why I buy on line ( Sandy has fibromyalgia) so for me it’s time pressure and also choice is much greater online to get a specific item.

Wendy agreed.

D when I buy I like to see because I don’t trust pictures and I don’t trust the sellers on line you order something and then you discover it is coming from China and it’s going to take three weeks Wendy I always check the seller out on line and I have preferred websites Do you browse more in store or online?

D I’ll probably browse 50-50 Sandy I’m not sure I probably browse more in store Wendy probably browse more online because I can do comparisons there J online Do you do you buy more items in one go online compared to instore?

W. Probably because if they are coming from different retailers.

J it depends what the situation is if you’re going online to look for a pocket watch you will just buy it online and leave the site.

S being on one side and buying something on that site doesn’t encourage me to search for other things on that site but being in John Lewis I walk past a section and think oh I like that so I browse more tomorrow in a store Wendy it’s completely depends if I’m looking for tech and I will look at the comparisons I will look online if I’m looking for clothes you are going to browse more because you don’t really know what you want.

D I think it’s asking do you buy more when you are online or when you’re in the store.

Sandy I think in store I buy more definitely because you see things.

Wendy I agree I save much more about going online Sue It’s the visual thing isn’t it What’s more important to you in making a purchasing decision: price, speed and convenience of purchase or volume of choice?

Sandy price and speed Wendy I agree and volume of choice online Sandy I agree, which is the most important thing volume of choice or price.

Wendy I think I would go for volume of choice if I didn’t have that volume of choice and I could get what I wanted in my local store I would definitely always go there Doug I have an issue with too much choice even water you go into a supermarket and there are 20 types on the shelf. And price is Important.

Sandy yes but not always the cheapest price Sue but the volume of choice if you are going on the Internet sometimes you get users opinions on their which if you could trust them could actually help you a lot and guide you to a product if you are buying a new product.

Sandy yes definitely I definitely look at reviews Wendy I read reviews all the time. So so the criteria that is most important depends on what I am buying everyone agreed Do you think online shopping has altered your expectations for all shopping?

Everyone yes. j you expect more you expect best deals you expect more choice w You can define your options down to what you want Sandy choice I think Would you use interactive games to false purchase?

Everyone no Would you like an app which incorporates real-time purchase and gameplay?

Everybody no not interested Section 3: Visual testing element What animal does your social media represent and why, and what animal are you out of the house and why?

Sue a Dog loyal friendly What does your social media present you as I am less open on my social media so I would say more like a cat a bit more aloof Wendy?

Wendy - no ideas let me just talk about my characteristics as I can’t identify with an animal as animals have different personalities anyway, my social media represents me as someone who is hopefully friendly and optimistic and out of the house I would like to think that that is that same and those are descriptive words as well so I don’t think there is any change different grades of emotion but no change I’m the same throughout. But I’m definitely more cautious on line, well I’m cautious off-line as well actually I don’t like to give too much away especially with a stranger I wouldn’t give him my whole life story so I am quite cautious Sandy - I thought about this since I saw that question and it’s a difficult one I think I would say I’m an elephant I have no idea why I like elephants I’ve got a good memory I don’t forget and I’m very family focused which elephants are yes and loyal I suppose. My social media presents me as and I don’t know what animal that is because I don’t use it very much so something that’s quite shy I suppose what shy aloof maybe elephant still. I I don’t know what my social media presents me as I am not on that often enough to think about it, which is surprising considering as I have worked in IT for the last 20 years and have an animal out of the house yes I think it’s an elephant again. Plodding along I don’t think I’m any different to my personality I think family orientated. Interested and cautious is my online personality. Virtual Personality is a bit more out there.

Doug - a giraffe and the reason is because he is calm and can rise above it all. His social media can’t really put portray him at all because there isn’t really anything on there. So His animal on line could be a tortoise plodding along he is a draft out of that house browsing around not getting worked up his online personality as he doesn’t use it very much is factual pretty lifeless and possibly even boring. His virtual personality is steady and flustered Julian - the animal is tigger as in bouncy. His online personality is also Tigger because he does things and he puts these things on social media. Exciting things and family things. He is not so bouncy online as he is in real life his presence is dumbed down a bit out of the house it is also a tigger.

Section 4: Value of technology Please describe your relationship with technology?

Wendy - i love technology.

Sandy - it has earned me a salary for the last 25 years Sue – I like it but couldn’t say i was the most comfortable, but appreciate it but also feel the need to keep up with it.

Doug - I used to keep up with it more than i do now.

Julian - I expect it to work and get cross if it doesn’t work.

Would you consider yourself to have a healthy relationship with technology?

Wendy and Sandy - yes

Julian – No, i expect it to work. We get cross if it doesn’t work.

Sue - We all know how to use it and when to use it Do you think that technology adds value to your life?

Everyone agreed that technology added value to their lives.

J When it does work it is good Sandy - connectivity and linking you to other people is good if you are a person who is really curious to know you can find the answers.

Julian - I would go 180° opposite and say that technology is screwing our lives up there is too much of it there is too much information moving round and we can’t cope with it Sandy - surely it is up to you and how you access that you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to Julian – it depends how it gets to you how it is pushed to you and when you see people bent over their phones which is a common stance it gets to you.

D - that is a particular type of technology Wendy - at least you can use the Internet to get a different point of you if you want to wear as back in the day we only got a certain view from papers newspapers that is and were only beginning to realise how biased those papers were now that we have access to more opinion Sandy - it is a worldwide superhighway for information and the cassette technology also includes television and films et cetera use of washing machines which have reduced working time for women.

Julian - there is some good stuff and some bad stuff.

Sue - it opens up opportunities that you wouldn’t have had before Do you think technology adds value to your social status Everyone said no.

Do you think that the use technology makes you happy?

Wendy and Sandy - no.

Sue - I value it but sometimes it takes up too much of my time Wendy - agreed it takes too much time especially social media so happy isn’t the right word.

If technology were to disappear tomorrow would you cope/adjust easily or do you think of yourself as very reliant on technology?

Wendy, Julian and Sandy - all agree: we have become reliant upon it and we would have to relearn skills.

Julian - we would find it easier to cope than youngsters who have never had to do it another way if you want to look something up the thought of going to library instead of online is daunting

Sandy - when the Internet is off it is terrible.

Sue - we like having facts at our fingertips Sandy – I now have an Amazon echo and I ask it everything.

Do you think you have a technology addiction?

Sandy and Doug – No. Wendy - yes Sandy – I sometimes don’t even take my phone with me, it’s often switched off Wendy – I enjoyed going on holiday where she didn’t have access to technology Everyone agreed but said they do like the benefits technology brings but it is good to have a break from it Section 5: Future behaviours Does the thought of technology knowing you so well that it helps you make decisions excite you or scare you?

Doug – it scares me, technology is almost directing people to do things.

Sue – agreed, it makes people more entrenched in their views.

How do you feel about the emergence of automated driverless cars?

Wendy - yes bring on driverless automated cars they would be safer than driven cars Julian – I feel that part of being a man was being in charge of a car and driving Sandy – it’s going to turn driving into a recreation rather than a necessity D - Local cars will be automated but I can’t see automated cars being used for longer journeys e.g. to Newcastle in the future Wendy - can’t wait until automated cars can drive me to Basildon.

In the year 2050 people will be estimated to be talking to their Alexis and AI devices more than their spouses Does this come as a shock to you or do you feel like this sort of interaction is already happening today?

Sandy and Wendy – yes it is already happening.

Julian - we have declared a no phone dining room because my family were getting into a routine where someone started using the phone and then the rest of the family is there, phones at dinnertime conversation is going on and the use of phone just kills it. It is taking the art of conversation away.

Doug - in 2050 that’s 32 years’ time! There will be humanoid Robot devices that people will interact with.

Sue - The good thing is the AI device will be so knowledgeable you will be able to have a very good conversation with it so as a group we are not shocked by this prediction.

Amazon has introduced a new service by which you can re-order essentials through simply asking Alexa how do you feel about this? Convenient or unnecessary?

Sue - convenient Sandy – I have Alexa and don’t use it Wendy – unnecessary, the children could order without restriction there could be a case of a parrot ordering something!

Would you consider that it makes the need to shop for essentials obsolete?

Sandy - the need to shop for essentials is not yet obsolete.

Sue – I don’t like shopping for essentials and would be happy for them to be bought via Alexa Wendy - I still have a milkman that delivers!

Sue – I would be happy to get the essentials automatically and buy the luxury ingredients as and when required.

What mundane shopping tasks would you not want to do any more that could be replaced?

Sue and Wendy – I want to have more creative/ leisure time and any tasks that enables this would be good.

Sandy - the devices we have presently have allowed us a lot more leisure time than the previous generation.

Julian - although we have stopped doing some tasks may be the AI/technology is taking up our time.

Sandy - mothers used to spend the day washing clothes, this task is much quicker now and so we have already benefited from technology.

Sue - free time that we now have has allowed us to spend more time shopping as well as other leisure activities almost shopping as a hobby. We are getting rid of essential shopping and replacing it with leisure shopping Doug - there is now a Tesco in an old church almost as if Shopping is a new religion.

What purchasing decisions would you not want to relinquish to technology?

Wendy – I would not relinquish shoe to purchasing to technology.

Sue and Sandy we would not relinquish clothes and purchasing to technology Doug - agreed Sandy - choosing presents could not be given to AI. What bit of your technology encourages you to purchase the most?

Sandy - my iPad or tablet.

Wendy – the computer desktop because it is more secure buying on a wired device

Do you ever purchase products you have seen on social media?

Everyone agreed they had not purchased a product they had seen on social media.

Purchased anything because friends or bloggers wore it on social media?

No all agreed they had not purchased in this manner and it might put them off copying in this manner.

Have you ever gone somewhere because you have seen a friend or blogger go there on social media?

Initially everyone said no but Sue said that seeing other people’s holiday pictures motivated her to visit similar destinations. Wendy agreed that this may be the case with restaurants and holidays Sandy and Doug said they might go somewhere because they have seen friends there on social media but have not yet done this.

Julian said that he went to the Ritz for afternoon tea and then felt that other friends also went to the Ritz after seeing his posts. Sue agreed that she was more likely to purchase an activity after seeing other people do it on social media.

Would you ever let by AI take buying power away from you? Do you see buying as a burden or a pleasure?

Sandy, Doug and Sue: we would not let AI take away buying leisure goods as we seek retail therapy as a pleasure not a burden although this is not necessarily true of essentials.

Doug - there is pleasure in getting a bargain.

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Crawford, M. (2014). The world beyond your head. Prentice Hall, pp.16 - 17.

Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes Error.

Foucault, M. (1966). The Order of Things: an archaeology of the human sciences.

Festinger, L. (1983). The human legacy. New York: Columbia University Press. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Harari, Y. (2017). Homo deus. Harvill Secker. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Kaku, M. (1998). Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century. Anchor Books. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Nietzsche, F. (1883). The Übermensch.

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ANON (2018). Transhumanism – the world’s most dangerous idea. [online] Au.dk. Available at: http://www. au.dk/fukuyama/boger/essay/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2018].

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Belk, R. W (1988). Possesions and the extended self. [online] Aber.ac.uk. Available at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/ en/media/training/2014/beforesept14/samwindows/pdf/belk-et-al-(1988)-’extended-self ’(1).pdf [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].

Best, S. and Kellner, D. (2018). Debord and the Postmodern Turn: New Stages of the Spectacle by Douglas Kellner. [online] Pages.gseis.ucla.edu. Available at: https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/Illumina%20 Folder/kell17.htm [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].

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Brasher, B. (1996). Thoughts on the Status of the Cyborg: On Technological Socialization and Its Link to the Religious Function of Popular Culture. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 64(4), 809-830. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1465623 (Accessed 30 Jan 2018).

Brooke, J. (2002). ‘Youth let their thumbs do the talking in Japan’. The New York Times. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Buckingham, D. (2006). IS THERE A DIGITAL GENERATION?. [online] Masaryk University. Available at: https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/podzim2013/SOC573/um/Buckingham_-_Is_there_a_digital_generation.pdf [Accessed 20 Jan. 2018].

Buckingham, D. (2006). Is there a digital generation?. Digital Generations: Children, Young People and New Media. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Bullingham, L. and Vasconcelos, A. (2013). ‘The presentation of self in the online world’: Goffman and the study of online identities. Journal of Information Science, 39(1), pp.101-112. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Campbell, N. (2018). The Posthuman Consumer. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia. edu/6807957/The_Posthuman_Consumer [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].

Caroll, E. and Romano, J. (2011). Your digital afterlife: when Facebook, Flickr and Twitter are your estate, what’s your legacy?. Choice Reviews Online, 48(12), pp.48-6952-48-6952. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Chan, M. (2016). Maslow’s Model as Applied to Social Media – Marsha Chan – Medium. [online] Medium.

Available at: https://medium.com/@MarshaChan/applying-some-psychology-to-social-media-9deb505f678 [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].

Chidambaram, L. and Kwon, H. (2000). A Test of the Technology Acceptance Model The Case of Cellular Telephone Adoption. System Sciences. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Choudhury, S. and Weber (2011). Digital legacy: the fate of your online soul. New Scientist, 210(2809), pp.41-43.

Cohen Crompton, J. (2014). Two Big Trends For The Future Of Online Shopping: Customization And Automation. [online] Digitalist Magazine. Available at: http://www.digitalistmag.com/industries/retail/2014/06/18/two-big-trends-future-online-shopping-customization-automation-01253532 [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].

Colliascope (2017). Algorithm schmalgorithm - Collidascope. [online] Collidascope. Available at: https:// www.collidascope.co.uk/2017/10/25/algorithm-schmalgorithm/ [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].

Costandi, M. (2007). 50 years of dopamine. [online] Mo Costandi. Available at: https://neurophilosophy. wordpress.com/2007/05/24/50-years-of-dopamine/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2018].

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1982), “The Symbolic Function of Possessions: Towards a Psychology of Materialism,” paper presented at 90th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.

Davidow, B. (2012). Exploiting the Neuroscience of Internet Addiction. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/07/exploiting-the-neuroscience-of-internet-addiction/259820/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2018].

Davis, F., Bagozzi, R. and Warshaw, P. (1989). User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models. Management Science, 35(8), pp.982-1003. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Duffy, B. (2003). Anthropomorphism and the social robot. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 42(3-4), pp.177-190. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Earlam, S. (2010). Why did Freud see human nature as being motivated solely by instincts for pleasure?. [online] Counselling-directory.org.uk. Available at: http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellor-articles/why-did-freud-see-human-nature-as-being-motivated-solely-by-instincts-for-pleas [Accessed 17 Jan. 2018].

Ferrando, F. (2013). Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Antihumanism, Metahumanism, and New Materialisms: Differences and Relations. [online] Existenz.us. Available at: https://existenz.us/volumes/Vol.8-2Ferrando.pdf [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].

Fong, T. and Nourbakhsh, I. (2003). Socially interactive robots. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 42(3-4), pp.139-141. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Foucault, M. (2002). The order of things. London: Routledge.

Fukuyama, F. (2018). Transhumanism – the world’s most dangerous idea. [online] Au.dk. Available at: http://www.au.dk/fukuyama/boger/essay/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2018].

Goffman, Erving (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Graham, E. (2002). ‘Nietzsche Gets a Modem’: Transhumanism and the Technological Sublime. Literature and Theology, 16(1), pp.65-80.

Grotophorst,, C. (2011). Your digital afterlife: when Facebook, Flickr and Twitter are your estate, what’s your legacy?: Reviews, science and technology. Science and technology, 48(12). (Accessed 1st February 2018) Gruel, N. (2018). THE PLATEAU EXPERIENCE: AN EXPLORATION OF ITS ORIGINS, CHARACTERISTICS, AND POTENTIAL. [online] Atpweb.org. Available at: http://atpweb.org/jtparchive/trps-47-15-0144.pdf [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Halberstam, J. and Livingston, I. (1995). Posthuman bodies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Han-Pile, B. (2010). The “Death of Man”: Foucault and Anti-Humanism. Wiley Online Library.

Harrington, A. (1999). The Big Ideas Ever since Frederick Taylor pulled out his stopwatch, big thinkers have been coming up with new--though not always better--ways to manage people and business. - November 22, 1999. [online] Archive.fortune.com. Available at: http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/11/22/269065/index.htm [Accessed 18 Jan. 2018].

Humanity+. “What is Transhumanism?”. http://humanityplus.org/ (Accessed 15th Jan 2018) Huxley, Julian (1957). “Transhumanism”. Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. (Accessed 16th Jan 2018) Iofcea, M. and Novak, O. (2018). Digital Legacy: Identity Multiplied - UNLIMITED by UBS. [online] Unlimited.world. Available at: https://www.unlimited.world/ubs/digital-legacy-identity-multiplied [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].

Jolly, R. (1999). Human Development Report 1999. [online] Hdr.undp.org. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/ sites/default/files/reports/260/hdr_1999_en_nostats.pdf [Accessed 31 Jan. 2018].

Jones, C. and Shao, B. (2011). The Net Generation and Digital Natives: (Accessed 1st February 2018) Lin, Zhongjie (2010). Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan. Routledge. pp. 35–36. ISBN 9781135281984. (Accessed 16 Jan 2018) McKay, S. (2016). Dopamine: the cause of digital addiction? - Your Brain Health. [online] Your Brain Health.

Available at: http://yourbrainhealth.com.au/dopamine-cause-digital-addiction/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2018].

Mehdizadeh, S. (2010). Self-Presentation 2.0: Narcissism and Self-Esteem on Facebook. [online] S3.amazonaws.com. Available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/35735374/Narcissism___ Self-Esteem_on_Facebook._Mehdizadeh__2010.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1517399763&Signature=ZI8Bp3LEqPcRGIaotLnjU2XeVeM%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DNarcassism_and_Self-Esteem_on_Facebook..pdf [Accessed 31 Jan. 2018].

Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View. Harper & Row. More, M. (1996). Transhumanism: Towards a Futurist Philospohy. PrimeNet. (Accessed 16th Jan 2018) More, M. (1999). A Letter to Mother Nature: Amendments to the Human Constitution. [online] Strategicphilosophy.blogspot.co.uk. Available at: http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/its-about-ten-yearssince-i-wrote.html [Accessed 14 Jan. 2018].

More, M. (1998). Extropian Principles 3.0:A Transhumanist Declaration. [online] Vency.com. Available at: http://vency.com/EXtropian3.htm [Accessed 31 Jan. 2018].

More, M. (2010). The Overhuman in the Transhuman. Journal of Evolution & Technology, Volume 21(1), pp.1-3.

Noble, D. (1997). The religion of technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention. New York: Knopf. (Accessed 1st February 2018) Pennock, R. (2018). Moral Darwinism. [online] Msu.edu. Available at: https://msu.edu/~pennock5/research/ papers/Pennock_MoralDarwinism.pdf [Accessed 13 Jan. 2018].

Rochberg-Halton, Eugene (1984), “Object Relations, Role Models, and Cultivation of the Self,” Environment and Behavior, 16 (3), 335-368.

Sartre, Jean-Paul (1943), Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology, New York: Philosophical Library (Accessed 16th Jan 2018) Schneider, S. (2008). Future Minds: Transhumanism, Cognitive Enhancement and the Nature of Persons. [online] Repository.upenn.edu. Available at: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=neuroethics_pubs [Accessed 19 Jan. 2018].

Schwartz, S. (2012). An Overview of the Schwartz Theory of Basic Values. [online] Scholarworks.gvsu.edu.

Available at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1116&context=orpc [Accessed 30 Jan. 2018].

Simone, J. (2017). The Plateau Experience: – Jaida Simone – Medium. [online] Medium. Available at: https:// medium.com/@jaidasimone/plateau-experience-hack-consciosness-1149db103481 [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].

Suomala, J., Palokangas, L., Leminen, S., Westerlund, M., Heinonen, J. and Numminen, J. (2012). Neuromarketing: Understanding Customers' Subconscious Responses to Marketing. [online] Timreview.ca.

Available at: http://www.timreview.ca/article/634 [Accessed 16 Jan. 2018].

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