At the core of Emoticash is an aim to restrike the balance of power in the modern surveillance state, placing a price upon the information that many members of the public unwittingly provide to companies countless times a day. If brands and businesses are being empowered by the information they collect from their customers, then customers should be empowered in turn, with the provision of spendable currency as the simplest way of achieving this balance – creating a mutually beneficial transaction.
But achieving this balance is not just as simple as monetary exchange. Multiple studies have shown an increase in mental health issues influenced by the current digital sphere. There is a mounting pressure of an expected ‘openness’ to share all details of individual’s life online. Often, this is filtered and refined, extruding a mirage of perfection and fake emotions to the world, when the reality is far from glamorous. The more data brands freely extract and learn from consumers to perfect their targeting, and to develop superior product, the world starts to skew towards an ‘idealistic’ lifestyle altogether. Brands hold more responsibility over the populations’ mental health than it originally seemed.
With Emoticash dedicated to giving back in a meaningful, impactful way that is not only beneficial to brands insight, but also the wellbeing of consumers, the rewards users receive after accruing a certain amount of currency are all focused on improving the emotional health. Audiences are becoming more and more open minded to find ways to improve their mental state – according to a survey conducted Dignity Health, 64% of millennials claim they practice dedicated activities to achieve mindfulness, such as yoga and meditation.
In recent years, EDR has proven to be one of the fastest-growing sectors in the tech industry thanks to its broad range of potential applications across multiple industries. Realeyes, an EDR tech company with offices in the US and Europe, works with numerous big brands and film production companies to produce “emotionally intelligent” visual media. Their proprietary software is able to identify the affective qualities of different media and even help in creating media to target specific demographic groups by metrics such as age or gender.