Riddled with issues like fake news, trolls and battery-draining apps, the social media big guns are falling short of expectations, so people are turning to alternatives, or adapting the platforms from within.

With technology’s ubiquity in modern life, media narratives have traditionally either celebrated or demonised its societal and personal effects. But as the dust settles, people are coming to a more nuanced understanding of how technology impacts them. As a result, they’re now looking to learn how to manage their relationship with tech – something they’re expecting brands to lend a hand with.

Renown counter-culture festival Burning Man is fighting back against what organisers call the growing 'Instagramification' of the event, by banning high-end glamping packages. People feel experiences are compromised by social media, as it forces them to live through a lens, rather than in the moment.

“Technology shouldn’t require all of our attention,” explains Amber Case, cyborg anthropologist and author of Calm Technology. “Just some of it, and only when necessary.” But with the average person checking their phone over 150 times a day, and 79% of Americans keeping their smartphone on or near them for 22 hours a day, tech is a constant distraction. With attention among the scarcest resources of the 21st century, people want tech to take a backseat and respect their cognitive capacity - it’s a design dubbed ‘calm technology’.