The Power of Consumers

I am not sure if we have to post on this week’s reading since I wasn’t in class last week, but I am behind in my posts so I thought I would write one just in case.

I really enjoyed the book chapters that we read by Dunne and Raby, especially chapter 1. The concept about thinking how things “could” be instead of how things “should” (3) be is a much more positive a realistic way of looking at things. “For us the futures are not a destination or something to be strived for but a medium to aid imaginative thought-to speculate with” (3). In terms of MakeyMakey, there are endless possibilities of uses for it. The creators of MakeyMakey provided the tool for other people’s imaginations. David shared some MakeyMakey videos with me and there was a video that Adina found that was truly inspiring. The fact that these students are high school students and they can use the MakeyMakey to impact students with disabilities for a classroom project that required limited resources just shows the amazing possibilities out there for consumers. If we had more people out there that were using technology to improve other people’s lives instead of their own that is where the true value happens. This video also reminded me of Dunne and Raby describing the power we have as consumers, “Sometimes we can have more effect as citizens than as designers” (37). We cannot only express what we want to buy, but we can use the technology we buy in an effective manner. Us being “Critical shoppers” (37) really gives us the power to allow things to succeed or fail. Critical shoppers is one of the reason we have Kickstarter campaigns. Big companies don’t require Kickstarter campaigns though, so we need to follow the advice of Dunne and Ruby and choose what we consume, “The most threatening act of protest for a capitalist system would be for its citizens to refuse to consume” (37). We have the power as consumers to support and adapt technology that “could” improve our future.