A consumer insight report about the impact social media is having on home and community living trends.

1. DORMITORY 2.0
a consumer insight report to a post hive era
Stacey Park + Dominique Crockett

2. THIS REPORT IS ABOUT:
how the dominating trends of social media and hyper-connectedness
are impacting emerging interaction and living trends.
HYPOTHESIS

3. SECURITY + HYSTERIA
Post 9/11 consumers are more concerned with privacy and government surveillance.
INFLUENCES + THEMES

4. SECURITY + HYSTERIA
“Reutgers teen commits suicide after private
encounter is broadcasted on web.”
Social networking and technology allows invasion of privacy that can have devastating results.
INFLUENCES + THEMES

5. UNPLUGGING + REAL COMMUNITY
People rejecting social networking platforms to spend time studying and interacting with friends in reality.
INFLUENCES + THEMES

6. UNPLUGGING + REAL COMMUNITY
Networking mixers bring Facebook and LinkedIn to real life. Curated groups of people in specifi
professions and communities meet to share ideas. The goals of these groups is to strengthen certa
communities through real human interaction.
INFLUENCES + THEMES

7. ENVIRONMENT + SUSTAINABILITY
Global warming scares and concerns about environment pushes the trend of “slow living” - growing food
and utilizing community for finite resources.
INFLUENCES + THEMES

8. SO WHAT?
The previously stated social and environmental problems and macro trends shows opportunity for
Innovation in home development and the human interactions that take place in communities.
Consumers are interested in creating more real life experiences with curated communities.
These new innovations are about transparency and real life social networking.
INFLUENCES + THEMES

9. NEIGHBOUR DINING
Neighbour Dining is a social food sharing concept. Users log onto a web site to broadcast what they are
cooking for dinners. Cooking collaboration results in credits on energy bill and larger communities.
CASE STUDIES

10. DIASPORA SOCIAL NETWORK
Diaspora is a social networking web site designed to let users fully control their privacy and identity
CASE STUDIES

11. WESBETH ARTIST COLONY
The Westbeth artist community is the largest of its kind in the world. Residents employed in all ar-
eas of the arts enjoy subsidized rent and an amazing community of artists such as themselves.
CASE STUDIES

12. WHO CARES?
There are three target consumer segments that would be most interested in the innovations taking
place in the realm of living and social networking trends.
CONSUMER STORIES

13. GREEN TEAM
This group is intrigued with the sustainable aspect of anti-digital living. Co-op’s
farmers market and sharing finite resources makes a return to true communal living.
CONSUMER STORIES

14. GREEN TEAM
People are more interested in connecting with others with a shared purpose. They value
neighbourly relationships and seek a spirit of cooperation.
CONSUMER STORIES

15. TRUTH SEEKERS
Transparency and truth are missing from social media. Upset by private date collecting and adverse
effects of the digital age on people’s lives, many people are unplugging.
CONSUMER STORIES

16. TRUTH SEEKERS
James
College undergrad, Facebook deactivated since June 2010
“So much time is wasted when you’re not even truly interacting... I have no need to have connection
with people who are not their true selves... Privacy concerns? I didn’t have any until I learned that
Facebook notified people of my birthday, even after I deactivated my account. It’s scary.”
CONSUMER STORIES

17. COMMUNALS
Communal living situations have always been attractive to artist and creatives costs are typically low
while collaborations and sources of inspiration are high. In an era of social networking overload these
environments have taken on a renewed meaning of true art of cooperation.
CONSUMER STORIES

18. COMMUNALS
Juliet
Caterer, wife of a painter, lived in Westbeth for 40 years
“The community and support has encouraged us over the years. Email and Facebook are necessary for
professional purposes, but the connections we’ve made here are really invaluable...”
CONSUMER STORIES

19. WHAT IF?
These influences and consumer stories were the prime inspiration for
new housing developments in urban areas and retrofitting suburban areas?
Social networking platforms such as Facebook, FourSquare, Twitter and LinkedIn could be manifested in
a real-life setting causing stronger communal bonds and sustainable relationships?
SOLUTION

20. RETROFITTING SUBURBIA
Culturally we tend to think that downtown and urban areas should dynamic and live areas, and we
expect that. But we same to have the expectation that the suburbs should forever remain frozen in the
adolescent place that they first were born into.....
“It’s time to let them grow up.”
ewnd
SOLUTION

21. DISSECTING SUBURBIA + THINKING LOCAL
Life in the mid-21st century is going to be about living locally. Be prepared to be good neighbours.
Be prepared to find vocations that make you useful to your neighbours.
SOLUTION

22. 1960’s COMMUNE’S
The idea of living locally and curated communities is not new. When people in the 1960s protested
against the war they rebelled by unplugging from the world by creating smaller thoughtful communities.
SOLUTION

23. DIGITAL LOCALISM
Future living situations and development decisions need to be a combination of digitalism and localism.
This new trend of a post hive age speaks to the theme that
COMMUNITY IS SUSTAINABLE.
SOLUTION