Module 14

Hacking the Mind Better Through Multimedia

Hacking the mind using audio

Modules 12 and 13 took a rather dim view on multimedia technologies, which we saw
could have a potentially negative impact on how individuals think, feel, and behave.
A big part of the criticism rests on the suggestion that media technologies have
evolved more quickly than the human brain has, and so media technologies can
exploit or fool our cognitive and sensory abilities. This in turn can lead to unpleasant
or unwanted experiences and behaviors.
However, this potential for digital media to exploit the brain means that it can be used
to beneficial effect by 'hacking' the brain to achieve positive results. In this module,
we will take a look at some of the more interesting and unusual examples of these. We
start by looking innovative uses of digital audio.

Activity 14.1
ASMR
Read Nathan Chandler's (2019) article, Science Is Finding Out Why Some Love ASMR
Videos and Others Hate Them, on the popular website HowStuffWorks.com. As you
read the article, ask yourself: what does ASMR has to do with digital media
technologies?

Science Is Finding Out Why Some Love ASMR Videos and Others Hate Them
Nathan Chandler (2019)

For the past decade or so, a whole internet subculture has developed around
autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), the tingly, euphoric feeling
some people experience when they're exposed to specific stimuli.

You'll find the most notable examples of ASMR on YouTube, where performers
crumple paper bags, brush their hair, fold napkins or whisper breathily into
microphones. Admirers, called "tingleheads," gaze at the videos in hopes of
reducing stress, finding relief from insomnia, and chasing a delectable,
shudder-inducing tingling feeling.
Michelob Ultra brought the trend to a much wider audience when it ran a Super
Bowl ad in 2019 featuring actress Zoe Kravitz, who tapped her fingers, whispered,
and cracked open a bottle of beer in the most sensual way imaginable. Now, ASMR
is a true pop culture phenomenon, one with established online celebrities.

ASMR, sometimes described as a "flow-like" mental state, isn't a new sensation.

2010 - the term was coined by a woman named Jennifer Allen who worked in
cybersecurity and wanted a way to describe the phenomenon that people in her
online community were reporting.
2015 - the first peer-reviewed study on the subject was published, and it found that
the videos helped some people fight off stress, chronic pain and sleep
disorders, and possibly even depressive thinking.

But not everyone finds ASMR sounds and sights relaxing. Some people actually
find them irritating.

"ASMR may be no different than cilantro and jazz music — people seem to love it
or hate it," emails Craig Richard, a professor of biopharmaceutical sciences at
Shenandoah University in Virginia and founder of the online learning center ASMR
University. He was also the ASMR consultant for the Michelob beer ad. "Like
cilantro, it could be genetically influenced, or like jazz music it may be due to positive
exposure and familiarity."

Scientists have used MRI machines to peer into the inner workings of peoples'
brains. One small study seemed to show that the brains of people who report ASMR
seem to fire differently, with areas related to reward and emotional arousal
showing more activity.

"The brain regions activated during ASMR are similar to brain regions activated
during affiliative behaviors like bonding and grooming," says Richard, the author of
the book "Brain Tingles." "This means that watching ASMR videos may activate
your brain in a similar way as being with someone you care about while they
play with your hair in a gentle way. It is likely that the brain chemical, oxytocin, is
strongly involved in ASMR because it is known to cause relaxation during bonding
and grooming behaviors."

It could also be that ASMR is a form of synesthesia, an odd neurological

phenomenon in which some people can "taste" shapes or "hear" sounds when
exposed to certain smells, among other responses.

"From a personality perspective, people with ASMR tend to be more open to

sensory experiences in general," says Stephen Smith, a professor of psychology
at the University of Winnipeg in an email interview. "They also tend to score higher
on some measures of mindfulness, particularly those relating to being curious
about the sensations that their body is experiencing."

Smith says that he and his colleagues are still working through large amounts of
brain scan data in hopes of finding more biological clues regarding the secrets of
ASMR. But so far, "my colleagues and I found that individuals with ASMR had less
distinct brain networks than matched 'control' participants. That said, much more
research is needed before scientists can definitively explain why some people love
ASMR videos."

And as to why some people don't like them? "I think that it relates to the
scenarios that are being depicted. They often involve young females performing
personal acts such as applying makeup. The voyeuristic1 quality of some of the
videos could be off-putting to some viewers," Smith says. "Additionally, if a viewer
isn't experiencing pleasurable tingling sensations, then watching someone
whispering at the camera would likely seem ridiculous (and potentially annoying)."
1 relating to or denoting sexual pleasure gained from
watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual
activity.
THAT'S
Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) INTERESTING
 is a phenomenon wherein certain sounds
generate a pleasurable sensation that Some people equate the
defies precise description to those who do not
experience ASMR, although terms such as euphoria of ASMR to a "brain
"tingles" have been associated with it (Barratt orgasm" or "whisper porn."
and Davis, 2015). And there's a lingering
perception that there's a sexual
 ASMR appears to have some therapeutic
value. ASMR-inducing sounds (examples of element to these videos, fueled
which can be heard on Video 14.1) reportedly in large part by the number of
help some people fall asleep and with beautiful young women in
coping with stress, for instance. tight-fitting clothes who
 What is interesting is that some ASMR-
create some of the most
inducing sounds appear to depend on popular clips. However,
modern media technologies, generating only about 5 percent of
what Dr Craig Richard of Shenandoah viewers in one study reported
University calls "transmitted ASMR". any sort of sexual stimulation
 These sounds are often captured from ASMR
binaurally using microphones, mixed and
stored as an audio file format that support at least two (stereo) tracks, and
played back on stereo headphones.

 For some, simply whispering into someone’s ear or running fingers across a
hairbrush very close to someone’s ear doesn’t seem to produce as strong an
ASMR phenomenon; the sounds have to be recorded and played back to be
most effective.

Triggers
Are the specific stimuli that occur during this interaction.

Categories & Examples:

 Tactile/Felt: Lightly touching someone’s hair, hand, arm, or back. This can
occur unintentionally with a hairdresser or clinician, or intentionally with a
friend, family member, or partner.
 Auditory/Heard: The low volume sounds of someone’s voice, their fingers
touching something, or the sounds of the item they are touching. Popular
sounds include whispering, gentle speech, tapping, crinkling, scratching, and
brushing.
 Visual/Observed: Seeing someone’s gentle movements and kind facial
expressions. Examples include someone gazing at you in a caring way, as
well as, watching someone’s hands unbox an item, poke at slime, cut soap,
play with kinetic sand, solve a Rubik’s cube, draw a picture, or create a
painting (Hello Bob Ross).
 Discussion 2
Binaural Beats
 Like the kind of audio used for transmitted ASMR, binaural beats require audio
formats in which you can record two tracks, each to be played in one ear.
 However, with binaural beats, it is absolutely essential that the sounds be
stereophonic2. Like ASMR, binaural beats seem to be effective for some people
in reducing anxiety (Wiwatwongwana et al, 2016) and stress (Gantt et al, 2017)
in certain cases.
How do Binaural Beats Work?
 It is hypothesized that binaural beats work by entraining the electrical
patterns in the brain--what we often call "brainwaves"--to the frequency of the
beats.
 ASMR, on the other hand, is thought to work because of different neurological
mechanisms.
2 (of sound recording and reproduction) using two or more channels of transmission and
reproduction so that the reproduced sound seems to surround the listener and to come from more
than one source.

Activity 14.2 Binaural Beats

How Can Binaural Beats Help You Sleep Better?
Michael J. Breus Ph. D (2019)

Binaural beats are a fascinating and exciting technology. Have you heard
of binaural beats? It’s a technique that’s been around for a while, but recently is
getting a lot of attention for its ability to lower stress and improve sleep, as well as
to improve cognitive performance.
I've written before about how sound can make a difference to sleep. Patients often
tell me that they fall asleep to relaxing music. They seem to find it really helps them
let go of active thoughts and quiet their mind—which, like yours probably does, tends
to race from one thing to the next all day long ("I can’t turn off my brain"
syndrome).
Binaural beats are a fascinating and exciting technology that harnesses the brain’s
responsiveness to sound to move you into a state of deep relaxation,
relieve anxiety, and help you sleep better.

What are binaural beats?

 Sounds like a new music genre, right? Not exactly.
 Binaural beats - technique of combining two slightly different sound
frequencies to create the perception of a single new frequency tone.
 The theory is that when exposed to two different frequencies at the same
time, one in each ear, the brain actually perceives a single tone that is the
difference between the two separate frequencies.
 Your brain, in a sense, “tunes” to this new frequency.
How does it happen?

 You listen to binaural beats using headphones. In each ear, you receive
sound at a slightly different frequency (often accompanied by some
relaxing background sounds).
 If your left ear receives a 300-hertz tone
 and your right ear receives a 280-hertz tone
 your brain will process and absorb a 10-hertz tone.
 That’s a very low-frequency soundwave—one you can’t actually hear.
 But you don’t need to hear the sound for your brain to be affected by it.
(Subconsciously)

Why is exposure to these soundwaves helpful to sleep and

relaxation?
 Science shows that exposure to binaural beats can create changes in the
brain’s degree of arousal.
 Listening to these sounds that create a low-frequency tone, research
indicates, triggers a slow-down to brainwave activity—and that may help
you relax, lower your anxiety, and make it easier for you to fall asleep
and sleep more soundly.

How brain waves work

 To understand how binaural beats may help relaxation, mood, mental
performance, and sleep, you need to know a little bit about brain waves and
what they indicate about our state of consciousness, emotion, and
mental activity.
 Brainwaves are created from the pulses of electrical activity our neurons
exhibit as they communicate with each other.
 Our thoughts, feelings, and actions are all expressed through this
constant neural communication
 —so our brainwaves are associated with how we feel and what we can
do at any given moment.

For the purpose of this discussion, we’ll talk about four major types
of brainwaves:

BETA
 These brainwaves are associated with high levels of alertness and arousal.
 When beta brainwave patterns dominate, we’re primed to focus and
concentrate, to make decisions and think analytically.
 When you’re analyzing an issue at work, you’re probably in a beta-
dominant state.
 Beta waves are fast, with a higher frequency (between 15-40 hertz). At the
higher levels of this range, beta waves are associated with anxiety.
ALPHA

 Alpha brainwave patterns are associated with a state of wakeful

relaxation.
 Slower and lower in frequency (between 9-14 hertz)
 Alpha waves are dominant when we’re calm and relaxed, but still alert.
 Alpha waves are associated with states of meditation—your yoga class
probably puts you in an alpha state—and also with our ability to be creative.

THETA.

 This brainwave pattern is associated with deep relaxation and with some
stages of sleep, including the lighter stages of non-REM (NREM) sleep.
 REM sleep itself is mostly composed of beta wave and other activity that’s
similar to an alert, waking brain.
 Deep meditation produces theta waves, which are slower and of lower
frequency (between 5-8 hertz) than Alpha waves.
 A theta-dominant state of consciousness - that murky barrier between
sleep and wakefulness, when you’re drifting in and out of sleep, and your
thoughts feel dreamlike and difficult to remember.

DELTA

 If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve heard me talk about slow-
wave, delta sleep.
 Delta waves are slow, low-frequency brainwaves (between 1.5-4 hertz)
that are the dominant brainwave pattern of deep (stage 3 and 4), NREM
sleep.
 As you can see, the faster (and higher frequency) the brainwave pattern,
the greater your state of arousal.
 The slower and lower frequency brainwaves are, the deeper your state of
relaxation—or sleep.

Scientists have observed for decades that exposure to sound waves can affect
brainwave patterns.

Entrainment (aka “tuning the brain”)

 A process that when the brain is exposed to sound waves at certain
frequencies, brainwave patterns adjust to align with those frequencies.
 This is one-way scientists think binaural beats work.
 By exposing the brain to beats that create low-frequency tones in the brain,
these sound waves create shifts in brainwaves themselves, generating
slower frequency brainwaves that promote deeper states of relaxation.

How binaural beats might improve sleep

 Brainwave activity during sleep is largely distinct from brain activity when
you’re awake.
 REM sleep is an exception: During REM, your brain is active in ways very much
like when you’re awake.
 During non-REM sleep, the slower, lower frequency theta and delta waves
dominate
 Compared to the alpha and beta waves that are prominent when you’re alert
and active.
 A therapy that slows brainwave activity, helping to produce low-frequency
waves, is likely to aid relaxation and sleep.
 But it’s not only lowering brainwave frequency that binaural beats may offer
to sleep and relaxation.

A small study (19 people) has found that exposure to binaural beats is associated
with changes to...

Three hormones important to sleep and well-being:

1. DHEA
 DHEA functions as a kind of master hormone, helping to produce other
hormones in the body on an as-needed basis.
 DHEA is critical to immune function and disease protection. Particularly
significant for sleep is that DHEA works to suppress cortisol, a hormone that
stimulates alertness and provokes stress at elevated levels.
 The study found that 68 percent of participants had increases to DHEA after
using binaural beats.

2. Cortisol
 is an arousal hormone, stimulating alertness and attention.
 Cortisol levels rise and fall in connection to circadian rhythms.
 Cortisol levels rise to their peak levels first thing in the morning, just in time
for you to be active for the day.
 Too-high cortisol levels are associated with insomnia, as well as more time
spent in light sleep, rather than deep sleep.
 The study found that 70 percent of participants experienced a reduction in
cortisol after exposure to binaural beats.

3. Melatonin
 promotes and regulates sleep.
 Melatonin levels rise dramatically in the evening, and the hormone works to
relax your body and mind, preparing you to fall asleep.
 The study found 73 percent of participants had higher levels of melatonin
after using binaural beats. The average increase was more than 97 percent.

Binaural Beats and Pain

 In addition to potentially boosting sleep-promoting hormones, binaural beats
may also reduce our perceptions of pain.
 A 2017 study found that binaural beats used in combination with visual
stimulation led to reductions in patients’ perception of acute pain.
 Other recent research showed binaural beats helped improve pain
perception in patients with chronic pain.
 This is good news on its own—and also promising news for sleep. Pain often
interferes with sleep (and poor sleep can make pain worse), so reducing pain
is one effective way to improve sleep.

Binaural beats for anxiety reduction

A growing body of research suggests that binaural beats can reduce different forms
of anxiety, from mild to chronic. One especially interesting study looked at the effects
of binaural beats on anxiety among patients preparing to undergo surgery—a life
circumstance that is pretty anxiety provoking for most anyone. Over a period of six
months, patients spent 30 minutes on the day of their surgery listening to binaural
beats. Compared to patients who listened to a soundtrack that did not include
binaural beats—and patients who received no “beats” therapy at all—the binaural
beat listeners experienced significantly greater reductions in anxiety levels.

Another study looked at whether binaural beats helped anxiety in patients preparing
for cataract surgery, and found that binaural beats led to reduced anxiety levels
and lower blood pressure levels before surgery.

Binaural beats to enhance cognition and creativity

Scientists are also looking at how binaural beats affect cognitive abilities, and
whether this is a therapy that can be used to enhance cognitive functions such as
learning, memory, focus, and creativity.

 Here’s some of what we know: Research suggests that binaural beats can
help working memory and long-term memory, and also strengthen
connections among networks within the brain.

 Attention may also be improved by using binaural beats. Studies have shown
that binaural beats may affect levels of dopamine, a hormone that plays a broad
role in cognition and a particular role in creative thinking.

 This has scientists examining the possibility that binaural beats can be used
to stimulate creativity. (If you’re looking to be more creative and innovative in
your thinking, keep in mind that sleep itself is a powerful tool.)

A few important notes

 Some studies have found that binaural beats can affect cognitive function
positively or negatively, depending on the specific frequency generated.
 For example, a study of long-term memory found that beta-frequency binaural
beats improved memory
 While theta-frequency binaural beats interfered with memory.
 This is something for scientists to continue to examine closely. For people who
use binaural beats, it’s important to understand that different frequencies will
produce different effects.
 When studying the impact of binaural beats on cognition, researchers often
find that individual differences matter in whether the therapy delivers a benefit.
Right now, it looks as though at least some of the benefits of binaural beats may
work for some people, and not for others.
 Research into binaural beats is expanding, but it’s still early. We’ve got a lot
more to learn about how this technique affects brain function and the ways
we might use it most effectively.
 That goes for cognitive enhancement, as well as for sleep, relaxation, and
mood.

There is a lot to like about this technology as a potential treatment

for sleep problems:

1. It’s low impact and non-invasive.

2. it doesn’t rely on chemical drugs, it’s inexpensive, and, for most people, likely
easy to adopt and maintain.
3. In this way, it’s similar to other behavioural therapies for sleep that I like, including
meditation and relaxation techniques, and other mind-body therapies.

 How are ASMR-inducing sounds and binaural beats similar?

 How are they different?
Activity 14.3. Alive Inside
Watch Video 14.2 (embedded below), which is a segment from the independent news
show, Democracy Now!. The segment covers a documentary called Alive Inside, which
is about how music can powerfully affect memory and emotion.
According to the proponents of the techniques discussed in the video, how does using
personalized music work to reawaken the inner self of individuals with Alzheimers
and dementia?
In the case of Alive Inside, although the ability to record and play back music
predates2 digital media technologies, the portability, physical size, memory storage
capacity, and affordability of modern media playback devices are what makes an
intervention like the one discussed in the documentary possible for large numbers of
people.
2 exist or occur at a date earlier than (something).

Hacking the mind using still and moving images

These past examples have all been about hearing and sound. Let us look at other
sensory or media modalities.

Activity 14.4. Hacking the visual system to ease the pain of jet lag
In module 12, we saw how blue light can disrupt sleep patterns. However, interestingly
enough, researchers have found that watching certain patterns of flashing light can
also help travelers recover from jet lag more quickly. To find out more, read the
article by Michelle Roberts (2016) on the BBC website, Flashes of light may stop jet
lag. Some points to consider:

Flashes of light may stop jet lag

Michelle Roberts, 2016
Exposure to short flashes of light at night could help sleeping travellers adjust
to new time zones and avoid jet lag, according to US scientists.

The light beams travel through the eyelids and this tells the brain to re-set the
body's inner biological clock, the Stanford researchers believe. They tested the
method in 39 volunteers and found it shifted a person's body clock by about two
hours. An hour of the flashlight therapy was enough to achieve this effect.

Body clock
People's bodies synchronise to the 24-hour pattern of daytime and night they are
used to. And when they travel across time zones to a new light-dark schedule,
they need to realign.

While most people can easily manage a long-haul flight across one or two time
zones, crossing several time zones messes with the body clock.

Jet lag can leave travellers tired, irritable and disorientated for days. As a
remedy, some people take melatonin tablets, which mimic a hormone released in
the evening.

Some try phototherapy - light boxes that simulate daylight. But Dr Jamie Zeitzer
and colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine believe sleeping in front
of a strobe light could work better.

They asked volunteers to go to bed and wake up at the same times every day for
about two weeks.

Next, they were asked to sleep in the lab, where some were exposed to continuous
light and others a strobe light (two-millisecond flashes of light, similar to a camera
flash, 10 seconds apart) for an hour.

The flashing-light group reported a nearly two-hour delay in the onset of sleepiness
the following night. In comparison, the delay in sleepiness was 36 minutes for the
continuous-light group.

Dr Zeitzer calls his therapy "biological hacking"

Cells in the back of the eye that detect the light send messages to a part of the
brain that sets the body clock.

The light fools the brain into thinking the day is longer than it really is, which
shifts the inner clock.

"This could be a new way of adjusting much more quickly to time changes than other
methods in use today," Dr Zeitzer said.

Flashing light was particularly powerful because it gave the light-detecting cells
at the back of the eye a chance to recover or recalibrate in the darkness
between the flashes, he added.
Stuart Peirson, an expert in neuroscience at Oxford University, said: "It is great to
see advances in this area being translated into effective treatments.

"Whilst drugs can be used to shift the clock, light is readily available and is what
our bodies have evolved to respond to.

"I'm amazed that they got such a dramatic effect. You would normally have to sit in
front of a light box for several hours to get an effect. The idea underlying this is
certainly based on solid biology.”

 What was the explanation given by the scientists who conducted the study on
why this intervention may be effective?
 If you had to take a guess, who do you think would not be good candidates for
this kind of intervention?

Activity 14.5: Pain relief, part 1: Virtual reality

Read the abstract of the research paper, Virtual Reality as a Clinical Tool for Pain
Management (Pourmand et al., 2018). Optional: If you would like to learn more about the
use of virtuality for pain relief, read Reenita Das' article (2018) about virtual reality for
pain relief, published by the popular magazine Forbes.
Why do researchers think that virtual reality can help with pain relief?
Uses of VR
 Pain Killer - it is emerging to be an excellent substitute for both opioids and even
marijuana for pain management.
 Overcoming Phobias & Healing other Mental Health Conditions
 Distraction for Easing Maternal Deliveries and Making Vaccination Tolerable
o Not just pain relief from diseases or post-acute procedures, but virtual reality
is an effective distraction for other causes of pain as well. From simple
vaccination or injection pains for children, to labor pains sans an epidural,
virtual reality is equally effective.
 Fulfilling Dying Wishes
o The wishes of those under palliative3 care4 can also be addressed by virtual
reality, allowing them to travel places without leaving their bed. These
could be existing cities or tourist locations, or even museums or other such
places of interest. This has been introduced at Bridgepoint Health and the
Mount Sinai hospitals in Canada. AppliedVR has the escape category of
experiences, which include ‘Escape’ and ‘London’ to provide relief from the
realities of lives.
o 3 relieving pain without dealing with the cause of the condition.
o 4 care for the terminally ill and their families, especially that provided by an organized
health service.
 Apart from relaxing experiences, some companies provide healthcare apps as well.
For example, Vivid Vision provides VR eye exercises for people with eye issues
such as lazy eye or strabismus.
 Medical education, surgery, rehabilitation medicine, psychiatry, and
psychology could all benefit from this emerging technology.
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW:
To evaluate the use of virtual reality (VR) therapies as a clinical tool for the management of acute
and chronic pain. (Acute = short but severe; Chronic – lasting for a long time)
RECENT FINDINGS:
Recent articles support the hypothesis that VR therapies can effectively distract patients who
suffer from chronic pain and from acute pain stimulated in trials.
Clinical studies yield promising results in the application of VR therapies to a variety of acute
and chronic pain conditions, including fibromyalgia, phantom limb pain, and regional specific
pain from past injuries and illnesses. Current management techniques for acute and chronic
pain, such as opioids and physical therapy, are often incomplete or ineffective.
VR trials demonstrate a potential to redefine the approach to treating acute and chronic pain in
the clinical setting. Patient immersion in interactive virtual reality provides distraction from
painful stimuli and can decrease an individual's perception of the pain.
In this review, we discuss the use of VR to provide patient distraction from acute pain induced
from electrical, thermal, and pressure conditions. We also discuss the application of VR
technologies to treat various chronic pain conditions in both outpatient and inpatient settings.

Activity 14.6: Pain relief, part 2: Neurofeedback

Listen to the podcast Loops by Radiolab (2019). (A written transcript is available.)
The entire episode is fascinating and well-worth listening to, but if you're short on
time, start listening (or go to the part of the transcript which starts at) 51:53 seconds
into the podcast. Use the following questions to help guide you:
 What kind of media modality (audio, static image, video, or animation) did the
researchers use to help Melanie visualize her pain?
 The technology used in Melanie's case uses neurofeedback. Look up the term on
the Web, and share your findings with the class.
 Draw a diagram that captures your understanding of how Melanie, the digital media
representation of her pain, and the MRI machine interacted to help Melanie manage
her pain.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)

Represent one of the newest ways of interacting with media that artists, scientists,
and other researchers are exploring. Instead of relying on users to click on buttons or
tap on screens or speak out loud to issue commands, BCIs use technologies such as
electroencephalogram (EEG) devices to pick up brain activity of users and try to
infer what the user wants to do.

This is a whole new branch of interaction design that has potential to help, for
instance, people with severe motor deficits. (The title of this module was actually
inspired by a hackathon in which I participated in 2016, called Hack the Brain: Hack
Yourself Better or Worse, where I worked with a group of artists and scientists to
prototype Bisensorial, an award-winning BCI demo that creates customized patterns
of vibration and sound based on brainwave readings that aim to influence your
mood.)
Neurofeedback technologies such as the one described in Activity 14.6 take this one
step further by allowing users to monitor their own thinking using some kind of
abstract representation of their own brain activity. In the case of Melanie, it was an
animation of a flame. However, there are some innovative and sometimes very poetic
ways that you can use neurofeedback in combination with unusual display devices
that are not your typical monitor or screen, such as in an artwork called Eunioa II by
the artist Lisa Park (Video 14.3). In this art installation/performance, the calmer the
artist Lisa Park is, the less turbulent the pools of water become.

Activity 14.7: Other ways to hack yourself better using multimedia

Search for a popular or academic article that gives a unique, unusual, or innovative way
in which digital and/or interactive multimedia can benefit individuals. Share your findings
with the class.

Conclusion
There are many ways that digital multimedia technologies have been useful and
beneficial to individuals. After all, without digital, interactive multimedia and the
Internet, you may never have had a chance to pursue an undergraduate degree outside
a more traditional university setting!

In addition, it is likely that you can list a few other benefits that digital media technologies
have benefited you or people that you know. You will likely cover these topics in your
other BAMS courses. The unique and innovative ways in which multimedia could be
used to benefit individuals as given in the examples in this module, however, may not be
discussed in your other courses, which is why we devoted some time to exploring them.
I hope that these examples might inspire you to push the boundaries of multimedia
technologies and applications to benefit people!