A social Media Platform for Well-being

Pelin
Social Media: Theories, Ethics, and Analytics
3 min readDec 7, 2020

--

Social media platforms that we use today lack a very important feature. A lock that blocks you from spending an excessive amount of time. We all have our tasks to complete and we all got distracted by social media. If a social media platform collaborates with us to limit the time we spend there it would be really efficient. Also, today’s social media doesn’t promote the health and well-being of users. I believe social media can promote the health and wellbeing of users. Designing a platform that promotes the well-being of users and limits the time they spend on social media would be beneficial for its users.

The first feature of this platform will be its time limit. The time that is allowed in one day will be determined by the user’s initial schedule. For example, if our schedule is full of meetings or if we have an exam scheduled in 2 days the time we are allowed to spend will be adjusted accordingly. Notifications of the platform will be related to the exam we will take, exercises we need to make, and the foods we need to consume that week. The notifications will promote a healthy and active lifestyle instead of promoting retention. Users of the platform can post everything including videos, voice messages, life events into their initial page, and what they post will be shared in our newsfeed. Healthy food providers, gyms, sports clubs can promote their offerings with those notifications so that the platform has a funding source. These healthy lifestyle companies will have access to information about the foods users consume, sports they do and all those kinds of healthy lifestyle information will be accessible if users accept to share their information. In return, they will be receiving personalized offerings. Also, they will be matched with potential sports friends that share the same sport interests. For example, a user wants to find a tennis partner and another one is looking for a hiking partner. The application will match users with their sports interests so that they can exercise together. Priority will be given to the initial friend list and the second priority will be given to friend’s friends in the area for matching.

Platform give points to users if they spend their time studying/working, exercising, and eating healthy food. Sharing pictures with timestamp will be the prerequisite for receiving points. The points that they accumulate can be used for discounted products from our sponsors for example discounted monthly gyms or coupons for healthy food. Also, they can use these points to increase the time they spend on the social media platform to interact with users. Stories that disappear in 24 hours and pictures of life events will be the main attractions for these social media users. Each user will customize how many points they can get from specific activities or foods. Alternatively, they can choose the default mode and let us decide the points they will gain

The platform is responsible for promoting a healthy and balanced lifestyle for its users. It will frequently promote yoga and well-being events as advertisements on the main page. Users who frequently share content that is related to abusive behavior or users who promote unhealthy eating habits will be blocked from the platform. The platform will have control over what was posted. Users will sign an agreement about things that can be acceptable and not acceptable in our platform. They will know beforehand that their actions are watched closely.

Below you can find a snapshot of the user interface in the platform.

Main Page

I hope you will enjoy spending time on Healthy Social!

--

--