Faith Oh Ke Jing (FASS), Goh Yin Hao (FoE), Teh Wen Han (FASS), Teo Zi Lin (FASS)
Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay
Industry Advisor: Mr. Hor Chor Kiat (UCI, NUS)
Social media usage has increased significantly around the world, with Singapore expecting to have around 3.2 million Facebook users by 2018. Such usage involves data centres which require a large amount of energy to function. Facebook data centres were responsible for emitting 649,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2016. We hope to encourage users to reduce their social media usage, in particular Facebook, by exploring alternative ways to engage their time. Our execution consist of two phases. The first phase is to increase awareness of the impacts of data centres and social media usage. This is done through visual posters displayed in RVRC and also oral presentation in social gatherings. Volunteers joining our programme then take a pledge to reduce their social media usage. For the second phase, we will organise different activities, such as movie screenings or a board games session, and get participants to join us. Throughout the project, we will monitor the participants Facebook usage through a tracking application called My Data Manager. We hope that this programme will initiate a behavioural change and reduce usage of social media for our participants.
Keywords: Culture and Lifestyle Trends, Responsible Consumption, Social media, Energy, Habit survey