Following events in Milton Keynes to say thank you, researchers at The Open University in Milton Keynes have launched a digital tool to help people say thank you more easily.
The new website, launched by researchers at The Open University based in Milton Keynes, gives everybody the chance to plant a virtual tree in a 'Gratitude Forest'.
Virtual trees can be planted for things such as thanking the NHS, colleagues or family and users are then able to add virtual leaves onto their “tree” with their expression of thanks or emotions.
It is part of the £1million Citizen Forensics project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The Citizen Forensics team are investigating how digital technologies impact on, and have the potential to enhance, citizen collaboration with authorities (including the police) to solve problems that are relevant in to a community.
Dr Zoe Walkington, Open University Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Counselling and a member of the Citizen Forensics project said: “Clapping for the NHS earlier in the pandemic showed how people like to express their gratitude so this is an opportunity for people to share, and read messages of gratitude from others relating to Covid-19 - or indeed anything else. Our digital gratitude tree is a way to keep that spirit going.”
Professor Arosha Bandara from The Open University, who leads the project, explains: “Our research into Citizen Forensics had started well before the pandemic and made us aware of the importance of online communities, but when the pandemic started this was felt all the more keenly. We therefore had the idea of developing a central place in which people could publicly share thanks with their communities.”
Contributions to the site will be completely anonymous.
One leaf planted on the tree expresses gratitude for the staff at the Princess Royal University Hospital, for their “incredible care and compassion” while another reads “We are feeling sad, lucky and all kinds of weird in equal measure. But I think there is an awful lot to be grateful for”.
The ultimate aim of the 'Gratitude Tree' project is for the forest to grow and enable people all over the world to plant their own trees and thank their own contacts.
