Digital Media and Your Brain: Middle School Lesson

Learning Activity

Thinking about our media choices and the habits we form while using them is important. Good habits help us build healthy and happy lives. Bad habits can make our lives more difficult. While addictive design is used to create many kinds of media, there is a movement to develop media using humane design. Humane design prioritizes what is good for us. It includes technology that is designed to be useful and really add value to our lives. Humane design encourages tech designers to design tools that really add value to our lives, not just get us to use the app more. Some apps and games can have elements of both humane design and addictive design: Some features might be helpful, and others might be a hindrance.

For this activity, distribute a copy of the file in the Resources section to each of your students and have them follow the directions inside.  

You may need to log into for free to Common Sense Media to access the handout. 

Resources

Humane or a Brain Drain