HOW TO slow down

IN A FAST-PACED SOCIETY

OUR AUDIENCE
those born in 1997-75
or ages 18-40
particularly women

-Money and job security contribute to the most anxiety in ages 18-40.

-Women have reported to feeling more stress than men on average and that number has increased over the past 5 years.

-Studies show that men tend to deal with stress better through exercise and listening to music (this does not include men who don't speak about their stress)

-Researchers say that lack of adequate stress management could end up causing stress level to increase leading to illness and higher health care costs.

S
EFFECTS U
IT
W
O
H
ES
STRESS:
IN SOURC
A
M
S
IT
D
AN
physically & emotionally
stress distorts space & time perception
money, family, & health

-The longer the stress lasts, the worse it is for your mind and body. People feel fatigued, irritable, and unable to concentrate. Chronic stress makes existing problems
worse. If one is sick, stress makes it harder to recover. Other negative eects are depression and anxiety.

-As an emotional response to stress, there is a narrowing of range of cues individuals extract from the surrounding environment. The result is a restricted attentional
capacity and a reduction of environmental sampling. As attention narrows, performance capacity is preserved by the retention of focus on only the important cues. An
example of this is tunnel vision or tunnel hearing, where cues around you are blocked.

-The primary source of stress is money, due to financial strain. Others include the economic concerns, family responsibilities, and personal health concerns.

MITIGATING STRESS
how americans handle stress
vs.
how they should handle stress

-Most people use surfing in the internet to lower their anxiety. Among those who reported high levels of money-related stress, the group was more likely to surf the Web.
Others also turn to television and 21% of millennials turn to smoking.

-Engaging socially is the quickest, most ecient way to rein in stress and avoid overreacting to events people perceive as threatening. Engaging face-to-face can calm
you down and release hormones that reduce stress. The more lonely and isolated people are, the greater their vulnerability to stress. Reaching out to family and friends
and connecting regularly is most eective. Adopting a healthy lifestyle and exercising regularly can also help with reducing stress.

SOUND AND THE BRAIN

6 psychological mechanisms
-brain system reflex
-evaluate conditioning
-emotional contagion
-visual imagery
-episodic memory
-music expectancy

relaxing sounds & music regulates

stress, arousal, and emotions

-brain system reflex: When the acoustic characteristics of sound signal the brain, triggering us to react on an instinctive level. Ex. A loud siren coming closer makes us
move out of the way.

-evaluative conditioning: When an emotion is triggered by sound because we heard it repeatedly in certain settings, making specific sounds associated with certain
environments.

-emotional contagion: When we perceive emotion expressed by music. Music does not sound sad, but we recognize it as expressing sadness.

-visual imagery: When music makes us imagine scenes or sensations. Ex. Hearing a rising melody and associating that with moving upwards.

-episodic memory: When a sound evokes a powerful memory

-music expectancy: When an unfamiliar variation on a standard note progression may cause feelings of surprise and curiosity

-Listening to music or relaxing sounds have been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in healthy subjects undergoing invasive medical procedures. Music can distract or
modulate mood.

-immunity: Positive emotions, such as optimism, and stimuli eliciting those emotions, such as humor and laughter may mitigate the negative eects of age and stress.
Given that music enhances mood and reduces stress, it stands to reason that it may also improve immune function.

SOCIETY TODAY
stress & speed addiction
women & gen-x
longing for the real
social media & connectivity

-an alarming increase in stress-related disorders beginning with elementary school-age children who are struggling with obesity, depression, anxiety, attention disorders
and all kinds of learning disabilities, a list of problems for all ages. Living under unnatural time pressures cause a myriad of psychological and physical ailments.

-Overall, stress levels are trending downward, but for not all demographics. Women between 18-33 report higher stress levels than others.

-As a result, there is a trend of the longing for the real as more and more aspects of life become fake or artificial. This is especially seen in those considered Generation
X (those born in between 1960 and 1980)

-Social media feeds into this lifestyle of speed. Instead of enhancing close bonds, technology facilitates avoidance of direct person-to-person contact, which takes too
much time. Social media provides an illusion of companionship without the demands of intimacy.

entrepreneurial
individualistic
skeptical

distrust hierarchy: They prefer to judge on merit rather than status, and prefer more informal arrangements.

work and family: Work and family balance is important to them. They work to live, not live to work.

clean and modern design: Favor streamlined looks and the contemporary aesthetic.

functionality: This age group focuses on functionality, looking for products that are easy to use, clean and live with. Time-saving products are essential because they are
juggling both young children and busy careers.

quality & value/something dierent: They are more apt in integrating electronic elements and seek to reassess/deconstruct why things are they way they are.

THE SOLUTION

using sound which is proven to regulate stress in combination with a more intimate way to interact can overall reduce stress. Our solution will provide both these things
while allowing users to connect in a dierent form of social media.

THE IDEA

the idea is to create a listening device that allows users to tune in to dierent locations in real time. users would also have the ability to chat with one another. by being
able to listen in to dierent locations and chat with others that are participating at the same time, this allows users to feel connected in a dierent way rather than just on
Facebook where everything can be broadcasted as superficial. users are also able to record their own sounds and broadcast them to their own close friends that use the
app. This acts a form of documentation and in ways, a form of therapy.

this is what the device might look like