Increased Understanding of the Digital World

Alice Kindborg Elofsson – https://www.behance.net/alicekindborg

Increased Understanding of the Digital World is about how to use graphic design to explain complex subjects and facilitate learning. According to market law, it’s illegal to market to children under 12, and to conduct direct marketing to children under 16 (targeted digital advertising does not fall into that category). This with the reason that children are negatively affected by this to a greater extent than adults. It has also been argued that advertising can have an impact on children's mental health and physical well-being as it, because of children's credibility, has a major impact on their values and attitudes. Today, children are growing up in an increasingly digitalized and visual world, and more than every other 10-year-old has visited social media that’s teeming with embedded non-commercial advertising. This problem led me to explore how, with the help of graphic design, you can convey the problem to children who have just started using social media. My solution is educational material for children in grades 4-6, a kit for a lesson that is ready for the teacher to use. The lesson kit contains a booklet with information about the problem and an exercise where students can experiment and learn to distinguish advertising from other content on social media. Gleerup's is used as a fictitious publisher. The purpose of the exercise is mainly to create discussion. The purpose of the lesson kit is to raise awareness of how we are affected by social media and to prepare children for that climate.