Denny George

Alone With My Phone is a first-person narrative story in which the user participates with their smartphone. It is a story about loneliness that uses sensory input like location and speech as plot devices to take the user through a journey of self-reflection with humor to help express some universal truths and remind users that they are not alone.

https://itp.nyu.edu/thesis2016/project/denny-george

Description

The central premise of my story is how a communication device's inability to help the protagonist communicate effectively leads to their growing sense of loneliness. The promise of internet and smartphones is that they are meant to bring people together but ever so often they are used as an excuse to avoid acknowledging each other in public. In the story, the app makes the user participate in a series of tasks trying to connect him/her with other people but inevitably fail. My project tries to tap into common smartphone behaviors of people to facilitate a direct encounter with loneliness rather than distracting them from it. The overall tone of the story is humorous and I hope it highlights the absurdities of technology aided communication.

Classes

Thesis