Meta Challenge 2023
In December 2023, I participated in a challenge run by The Knowledge Society, where teams worked to create a solution to a problem statement given by an outside organization. Within the two week period, each team had to create a slide deck explaining their solution, and a video presenting their deck. For this challenge, we received a problem statement from a Meta Executive, which stated:
"What can Meta do to ensure the safety of young people that use its products? As Meta ventures more into the Metaverse, what ideas are important to consider to provide a high quality, non-harmful experience for younger platform users?”
My team consisted of Zofia Hardek, Sara Kern, and myself, and we created a solution called Challenge Breaks for Instagram. With our feature, the user would be forced to take breaks in increments of their choosing, ranging from 20 - 60 minutes. Once they spend their set amount of time on the platform, the user would get to chose a challenge that aims to improve their mental and physical health. The options that we came up with were:
Reading:
Article With Questions - Provides an informational article to the user, which is given at random from a collection stories written by quality news sources. Once read, basic comprehension questions are asked to ensure they read and understood it.
Log Your Own Reading - Allows the user to read a book of their choice for at least fifteen minutes. Once completed, pictures of the first and last page you read are submitted in addition to a brief summary of what occurred.
Writing:
Freestyle Writing - Allows the user to write anything during the fifteen minute break. If they wish to continue writing after the break, they may do so for as long as they wish. Guardians cannot see what their child writes, but the child can view it through their account.
Talk to an AI Chatbot - Allows the user to write anything during the fifteen minute break. If they wish to continue writing after the break, they may do so for as long as they wish. Guardians cannot see what their child writes, but the child can view the conversation through their account.
Meditation:
Guided Meditation - Provides the user with a video, sourced from content creators on Meta, to guide them through their meditative exercises. Once completed, the user will give a brief description of how they felt afterwards.
Breathing Exercises - Presents the user with a video, sourced from content creators on Meta, showing helpful breathing exercises exercises. Once completed, the user will write a short description of how they felt afterwards.
Exercise:
Short Workout - Provides the user with a varied fifteen minute workout video, sourced from content creators on Meta. Afterwards, they describe some of the exercises they did as a form of proof.
Log Your Own Exercise - Allows the user to do a form of exercise of their choice for at least fifteen minutes. Once completed, pictures or videos of what they did are submitted in addition to a brief summary of the activities done.
These challenges would take about fifteen minutes to complete, and once completed, the user would be allowed back onto Instagram for their set time allotment. With our feature, we believe that users would improve their relationship with social media and decrease the risk for social media addiction.
As a group, we faced a lot of challenges while working on this project. We all lived in different locations (Me in Pennsylvania, Sara in Washington, and Zofia in Poland), so the nine hour time difference was hard to work with at times. While we could not easily find times to meet over Zoom, we used Slack to keep in touch on all of our progress. Another obstacle was making sure that we could communicate our idea clearly throughout our Google Slides presentation.
While we did not win, we still made it into the top ten submissions. I am super proud of my team and all of the work we accomplished, and am very excited to compete in future competitions hosted by TKS.
If you are interested in seeing our slide deck submission, click here :)
