For our social prosthetic, we decided to create a wearable that displays Terms and Conditions using an LCD screen connected to an Arduino. The idea spawned from the abundance of these terms that we must view to join social media websites. We had two initial focuses:
- “Using the wearable display to show how crazy it is to expect us to read the entire terms and conditions before accepting. Also show off how creepy/extensive the actual terms of some services are today.
- Using the wearable as a “futurist” concept. This way the terms and conditions are part of social contract between two people in day to day interaction. So in order to have a conversation or get to know a person you need to accept their terms and conditions. Its like if you were required in real life to request someone to be your friend and they responded yes or no right there. We could also play with breaching, were some people have odd requirements in their contracts, like you can’t say certain words to them or it restricts your body language.”
We were unsure at first if we should use real terms from social media websites such as Facebook or Twitter, or to create our own terms that could vary from person to person. We also considered jumbling existing terms to create a sort of composite. We ended up using the second idea, to make it seem like a more personalized experience.
For the wearable itself, we first thought of making a headband or a shirt patch with the screen attached. This evolved into an actual hat, with the inclusion of a hand type accessory to “accept” the terms. This turned from a wristband to a hand-band with conductive fabric sending a sensor to the arduino to turn off the screen.
We then drafted the terms and conditions, using the Facebook terms as a reference. Here is an example of the terms we ended up with:
- Privacy and Safety
- You are not allowed to disclose or sell any personal information about this user to any other persons or organizations.
- You are not allowed to share any inflammatory, malicious, misleading or any offensive information with this user.
- You are not allowed to use any methods of bullying or intimidation towards this user.
- You are not allowed to raise your voice over 30 dB while speaking with this user, as they are easily frightened.
- You are not allowed to touch this user in any way without their clear permission.
- Disputes
- In the case of a dispute, you are not allowed to ignore this user or avoid confrontation.
- You are not allowed to say anything inherently mean, hurtful or something that may make this person cry.
- You are required to apologize first, even if this user was in the wrong.
We documented the wearable in action with a video that can be viewed here:
by Erica Vitucci, Dani Llamas, Zach Britt, and Ivana Lukic