DESIGN FOR SOCIAL IMPACT

Exercise 1 - IMPACT

Day One: Technologies IMPACT On Our Daily Lives

For 24 hours I recorded the usage of my cell phone:

Alarm Setting- 1

Event Reminder- 1

Text Messages Sent- 14

Text Messages Received- 11

Calls Made- 8

Calls Received-9

Calculator-1

I was really surprised in the number of times and different ways that I used my cell phone throughout the day. Ten years ago it was a luxury to own a cell phone, even for use in case of emergency. And today I don't even have a home phone line or an alarm clock because I use my cell phone for everything.

Day Two: Collection of Trash

For one day I collect all of the trash that I used throughout the day...

1 Muffin Wrapper

1 Gatorade Bottle

1 Plastic Wrapper for sliced apples

6 Tissues

1 Plastic Fork

1 Plastic Salad container

I truly expected to have created more trash today. I was really surprised when I realized that I didn't fill up even one trash bag. But, at the same time I am obviously not the only person on this planet and it only takes a little bit from each person to create a mountain of trash. After looking through my bag I also realized that almost all of my trash was related to food and drink packaging.

Day Three: Life Is Too Short

This morning I attended the funeral of a good friend. He died of cardiac arrest at the age of 28. I'm convinced that there is no greater impact in life than death. It was surreal to see his body lying in the casket with so many of us together simultaneously grieving. The entire experience was heartbreaking, but the ritual of all of us gathering together to mourn and support the family as well as one another was soothing. His life was much too short... RIP D.W.

Day Four: Trash Challenge

After the results of Wednesday's trash collection I decided to challenge myself to not creating any trash. Knowing that most of the trash I created was due to food items I tried to pack foods for my day that would create less or no trash. What I was not considering was the amount of waste created at work. Due to the nature of my job I am forced to unnecessarily use and waste piles of paper. Although I end up shredding most of the paper at the end of the day because it contains sensitive information, it is still a waste. It was nearly impossible to diminish my creation of trash. That is sad, and maybe something we should address?