Technobiophilia: Nature and human interactions in the digital age - Sarah Mate

 

The wordcloud output for the articleTechnobiophilia: Nature and human interactions in the digital age highlights the words nature, change, concept, virtual, digital and research. I chose an apple for the wordcloud shape as a symbol of technobiophilia, as apples are representative of both nature (fruit that grows on trees) and technology (Apple Computer, Inc.)

This mostly aligns with my interpretation of the article, which explains how the concept of technobiophila can help technology users better understand and relate to nature and the environment, especially in regard to the environmental impacts of climate change. “This study confirms that the theme of technobiophilia provides an effective basis for maintaining and developing a symbiotic and mutually sustainable relationship between nature and humans.” (Oe, Yamaoka and Weeks, 2022, p. 2)

I like that both nature and virtual are highlighted, because that really is the essence of the article – using virtual reality to better understand nature and our natural environment. I am surprised that “educational” isn’t more prominent, as “educational tourism” is a main theme of the article. I also expected to see “behaviour” to be a more prominent word, as the study often explains that technobiophilia could be used to promote more eco-friendly behaviour, with the word appearing 17 times in the study. For example, as noted in the study: “…the concept of technobiophilia can play a significant role in connecting the physical and virtual worlds and encouraging people to change their behaviour.” (Oe, Yamaoka and Weeks, 2022, p. 5)

I found this article to be very inspiring and spent some time considering what other ways virtual reality could help humans be more empathetic to various causes. One idea I had was to use technology to humanize folks who live rough on the street. These people are often lumped together and called “the homeless”, leading people to forget they are human beings just trying to survive. Perhaps VR could be used to assist with the homeless crisis just as well as it could for climate change.

Reference:

Hiroko Oe, Yasuyuki Yamaoka & Max Weeks | Jeroen van de Weijer (Reviewing editor) (2022) Technobiophilia: Nature and human interactions in the digital age, Cogent Arts & Humanities, 9:1, DOI: 10.1080/23311983.2022.2068823