Technology promises to liberate us, but this freedom comes at a price. The digitisation of our everyday lives saves us time and brings us closer to the people we love. Yet at the same time, we feel rushed, isolated or enslaved by our devices.

“Unread Messages” attempts to stimulate discussion amongst designers and the public around the social and ethical implications of current and future communication technologies.

In October 2015 an open online community was formed to gather opinion from 125+ members of the public. Discussion topics included social media, email and messaging, the “always on” lifestyle, notification overload, data deluge and device addiction. From these attitudes and insights emerged three core themes: Empowered But Dependent, The Curated Self and Compulsive Behaviours.

Based around these themes, Six:Thirty worked with a group of international multidisciplinary designers to provide innovative responses to the question: how can we improve our mental wellbeing by changing our relationship with technology?