New Website Guides You Through Homeless Experience

It’s one thing to feel bad for homeless people; it’s another to be forced into their shoes. Advertising agency McKinney has teamed up with Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD), a non-profit based in North Carolina, to create SPENT, an online game that guides users through what it feels like to be homeless.

Here’s how it works: If you accept the challenge to play, you enter a simple point-and-click game, navigating multiple choice questions about your livelihood. The site says you have been stripped of your savings and are currently unemployed, asking, “Can you make it through the month?”

You’re given simple choices with varying consequences. Do you want to try working in a restaurant? A factory? If you live far from the city your rent will be cheap, but, as you’re informed through pop-ups, you’ll have to pay more for gas or transportation.

The game’s integration with Facebook is its best feature. When faced with some choices, (like your landlord raising your rent) the game will ask you to decide whether to ignore the claim, pay it or ask a friend. The last option opens up a pre-written statement in Facebook where you can email one of your actual friends for “help,” bridging the gap between virtual reality and the real uneasiness of having to ask a friend for assistance. This simple act also helps spread awareness for the game by attaching a logo and small description to your request.

The game, however, walks a fine line with tone. Non-profits constantly have to balance bumming out their audience with important facts and stats, and motivating that same audience to then donate or become engaged. SPENT seamlessly blends that information into the game. Your choices are met with great insights about how many people opt out of health insurance because of high premiums, how 44% of people living below the poverty line use public libraries to access the Internet or how in 2009, 50 million Americans lived in households that had a hard time getting food. These facts are made all the more powerful after you’ve had to weigh the options for yourself.

After trying to shop for digital groceries, however, that fact is punctuated by comments like “With these groceries, you’re going to [have a hard time].” If you elect to eat a cheap burger rather than a salad you’re told, “Perhaps that’s why low-income workers like you are more likely to be overweight.” If you choose to live out of the city, SPENT sends you off with a missive: “Let’s hope your car doesn’t break down!” One of your options for getting some extra cash is to smash your child’s piggy bank for an extra $15.

SPENT definitely subscribes to the “tough-love” mentality, trying to give you a realistic impression of what it’s like to deal with homelessness and poverty. With its snipes, the game also gives a good impression of what it’s like to be leered at.

Jenny Nicholson, a copywriter at McKinney, is one of a handful of people that created the game and came from circumstances like the ones SPENT simulates. She says the game isn’t about disparaging the user but creating empathy: “You have to make the best decisions you can. The people that are in these situations don’t do this because they’re stupid but because they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

Tough love is a tough sell for someone who stumbles onto the game simply wanting to learn more or give money. There is a donate button at the bottom of the page, and once you run out of money you are prompted to get involved or donate to UMD. Currently based in the Durham region of North Carolina, Nicholson hopes to release SPENT nationwide if it proves effective.

What is your experience with the game? Should non-profits be tougher and more forthright about the problems they fight? Let us know in the comments.

Study: Soda Causes Cancer in Mice

Bad news for soda drinkers. A new study shows the caramel coloring in soda could cause cancer.

The chemicals in the caramel coloring cause cancer in mice, according to a new study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

More studies have to be done before the connection is confirmed. The mice were given extremely high doses of the substance.

The FDA and the World Health Organization are conducting studies on the chemical to see what effects the caramel coloring has on humans in normal doses.

Just last week, another study suggested that diet soda could cause stroke and heart attack.

The study followed more than 2,500 New Yorkers for nine-plus years and found that the diet soda drinkers, who partook in diet beverages daily, had a 61 percent higher risk of vascular problems including stroke and heart attack, as opposed to those who completely stayed away from diet drinks.

The study was presented in front of the American Stroke Association at last week’s International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles.

More studies need to be done, researchers say, before they can confirm the link between diet soda and heart attack and stroke.

The Rise of Digital Multitasking

More Americans than ever are multitasking while they watch TV, according to a new survey from Deloitte.

Between September 10 and October 8, 2010, Deloitte polled 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 14-75 on their digital habits. Unsurprisingly, it found that Americans are plugged in. 85% own a desktop computer, yet another 68% own a laptop or a netbook and another 41% have Internet-enabled phones. Moreover, 1/3 of American households now own a smartphone, up from 22% in 2007.

TV is still king, though. 74% of U.S. consumers still watch TV primarily on their TV sets, and a full 59% of U.S. households now own flat-screen TVs. In 2007, that number was just 17%. Still, Deloitte’s survey shows that younger consumers are moving towards the Internet for their TV content; 37% of 22 to 27-year-olds surveyed said that they watch TV on the web five to seven times a week.

The TV-watching experience is changing, too. A full 42% of American consumers surf the while they are watching the television, 29% talk on their phones while the TV is on and 26% of consumers are texting or sending IMs. Multitasking has become a more prominent behavior of U.S. consumers. No longer do you find he whole family circling the TV to watch Cronkite deliver the news; instead, they’re checking Facebook and making phone calls.

The survey also addresses the decline of print media. Deloitte specifically mentions print magazines as a medium that is “surviving the digital tsunami.” 2/3 of U.S. consumers have read a print copy of a magazine in the last six months, higher than newspaper and other forms of print media. Interestingly, 87% of U.S. consumers say that they prefer the print copy of magazines over the digital version. In fact, 55% of U.S. households still subscribe to at least one print magazine, up by 1% from 2009.

We’re a bit surprised to see that print magazine subscriptions haven’t dropped off like a cliff in recent years, but they are definitely falling, and it’s forcing publishers to make hard choices. To counteract this effect, many publishers are turning to the iPad to recreate the magazine experience digitally, although the results have been mixed thus far.