Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Whatsapp are once again amongst the most downloaded apps in 2016. We seemingly have very close relationships with our friends, we post photos of our lives and we chat all the time on our mobile phones. But in reality, are our lives better this way? Participants of the TEDx Conversation event in Budapest were looking to answer this question with the help of the mobile app developed by Astron.
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a global set of conferences under the slogan ‘Ideas worth spreading’. In Hungary, there are multiple, independently organized conferences looking to achieve the same goals, like the TEDx Conversations, which is a new social communications event of TEDx Danubia. The set of events organized by István Csutka, Tedx Conversations Ambassador kicked off at the end of September with a pretty hot topic: the pros and cons of digital social communication platforms. Speakers included Krisztina Hevesi, assistant professor at ELTE University and Péter Szántó, founder of SpringTab. The events are hosted at Madách Theater.
One of the main goals of the organizers is to generate dialogs amongst different groups of society. ’We would like for everyone’s voice to be heard. For this reason, we introduced a new mobile app for participants to use during our events. They can anonymously express their opinion by voting and ask questions from the speakers. With the help of our partner, Astron Informatics Ltd., we created a modern and user friendly app. – said István Csutka, main organizer of the event.
Many stated that these social communication platforms help them maintain a relationship with their relatives and friends living abroad. There was even someone who managed to track down a relative on Facebook. At the same time, the negative aspects were also emphasized: everyone spends their free time on their phones and the lack of non verbal communication makes it difficult to have real conversations.
Based on the votes, the majority of the people present feel that digital social communication platforms do actually improve our lives, but it is important that we learn how to use them.