What
if there was a central place for all of humanity to text, tweet, email,
blog and click in the essence of their mood in the moment? This gigantic
feelings aggregator would provide a massive emotional pulse check on the
planet that runs continually. Represented as a color wheel inspired by
the mood rings of the 1970s, blue and violet would signify people being
in cooler, calmer and more satisfied states whilst ambers and reds would
represent a civilization in a deep state of angst. As our collective blip
moved around through the hues of this vast digital mood ring, we could
track the collective emotional shifts triggered by reports of natural
disasters like earthquakes or human made crises like financial meltdowns
or celebrity breakups.
Planetary Mood Ring submissions, called "moodies", could be
sorted out by geo-spatial location and show moods of entire countries,
cities or towns, highways, your own neighborhood, office or household.
People could enrich the whole Planetary Mood Ring by attaching words,
videos and photos to their moodies, letting us all into the cause of their
current mood. With all of this mood-data in hand the planetary populace
(or perhaps just your office cubicle-mates) could attempt to move its
collective blip from amber to aquamarine through the application of artistic
or spiritual uplifting exercises and begin to push back on the angst-intensifying
effect of global media.
Could this Planetary Mood Ring help us all to calm down a bit, enter into
a state of enhanced presence, thereby allowing us to clear our heads and
learn to treat our fellow humans and planet with more care and compassion?
This just might work so I feel it's worth a try!
Also broadcast on www.bbc.co.uk/programmes
To submit your planetary mood: www.planetarymoodring.org/
Drawing by Emily Kasriel, The Forum on BBC World Service Radio
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