Yesterday our IT-Senior group in Åsele had the opportunity to try out a basic VR implementation, during one of our regular bi-weekly meetings at Åsele Library. Although they found it interesting, they were not overly impressed! They did think it might be interesting to visit a famous place in VR, and have a virtual look around. They were also in favour of using augmented reality (AR) to enhance the experience of going to a museum or art gallery.
Q-Life is dedicated to improving quality of life in relation to the use of information and communication technologies. Quality of life is not so easy to define – although most of us think it is important and probably have a feeling for what it means for us. It can be related to (some versions of) the ancient Greek ideal of eudaemonia, or “human flourishing”.
Q-Life’s view focuses on the experience of living, rather than more objective aspects such as income or education. Here we list some factors that we see as important for a good quality of life:
Health – According to the WHO[1]: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” A good quality of life implies maximising health in this sense, but including in the presence of disease and infirmity.
Happiness – There is a lot of current interest in positive psychology, which is more or less the scientific study and promotion of the feeling of happiness, and positive emotions are known to have beneficial effects on health. The broader sense of happiness – a state of subjective wellbeing – could be regarded as synonymous with a good quality of life. This is not merely the more narrowly defined emotion of feeling happy, but a “good life”.
Social engagement – We should be engaged with others in the way and to the degree that suits our personality, usually in a variety of ways and types of situation. This is sometimes described as a feeling of social belonging, or of not being isolated from others.
Self-fulfilment – We should live in a way that allows us to do things we find fulfilling and enjoyable, that is, to achieve personal goals and realize aspirations.
Self-transcendence – This refers to some aspect of being alive that involves an experience of something beyond our individual existence. Perhaps a “spiritual” feeling we get from being in nature, or from meditation, or a system of religious beliefs, or something we get listening to music.
Self-sustaining – A good quality of life supports continued living with a good quality of life. This is closely related to the concept of “successful ageing” – and we are all ageing.
[1] Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.
Submission by Ingvar Tjostheim, Chris Wales and John Waterworth accepted for presentation at IHIET 2024, in Venice, August 26-28, 2024.
The paper is available for free downloading (Open Access) here.
“Digital Travel Directions” by John Waterworth & Ingvar Tjostheim accepted for presentation at the International Conference on Management, Tourism and Technology ’24, to be held in Cusco, Peru, May 9-11.
Mary Webster, Kelly Norwood, John Waterworth & Gerard Leavey (2023)
Effectiveness of Intergenerational Exchange Programs Between Adolescents and Older Adults:
A Systematic Review, Journal of Intergenerational Relationships.
DOI: 10.1080/15350770.2023.2267532
Exploring Susceptibility to Phishing: the Cognitive Reflection Test and Other Possible Predictors
By Ingvar Tjostheim and John Waterworth
Accepted for presentation at HICCS 56, Waikiki Beach Resort, January 2024
John A. Waterworth and Ingvar Tjostheim.
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. online ahead of print
“Digital travel as an alternative to physical travel – an analysis of
personal traits and vicarious sense of place evoked by a computer game“
Ingvar Tjostheim and John Waterworth
accepted for presentation at icotts’23, Bacalar, Mexico, November 2-4
Our paper “Human sovereignty when a disease is controlled through restrictions on persons: Citizens’ views on whether scientific evidence for restrictions is necessary” presented by Ingvar Tjostheim at IACAP 2023 – International Association of Computing and Philosophy Conference, Prague, 3-5 July 2023.
Our paper “Uncovering Dark Patterns – Learning through Serious Gameplay about the Dangers of Sharing Data.” (by Ingvar Tjostheim, Chris Wales and John Waterworth) has been accepted for publication at WorldCist’23 – 11st World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, to be held in Pisa, Italy, 4 – 6 April 2023.
“Digital travel – A study of travellers’ views of a digital visit to Mexico”
by Ingvar Tjostheim and John Waterworth has been accepted for presentation at ICITS’23 – The 6th International Conference on Information Technology & Systems, to be held in Cusco, Peru in February 2023.