“Again, Twitter’s interface was very intentionally designed to maximize the amount of time per day a person spends online. The Fediverse really doesn’t need that, but it has it anyway. That’s why I’m proposing that we reevaluate the way we design Fediverse interfaces and clients in light of how we can best strike a balance between creating a positive experience and one that puts the well-being of the person using your product first.”

  • @[email protected]
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    3 years ago

    I’ve spent a lot of time researching “anti-designs”, or prosocial design features. https://www.prosocialdesign.org/ has a brief list of a few good prosocial interventions.

    I highly recommend listening to the Center for Humane Technology’s “Your UnDivided Attention” podcast. It is easily accessible, and is an excellent resource to learn about designs that could make social media platforms healthier, and non-addictive. They interview engineers and designers who work for Facebook, Twitter, Google, et al., and talk about all sorts of healthier designs for these platforms that have been researched, tested, and intentionally NOT implemented because addiction has proven crucial for turning a profit with these websites.

    For years Facebook, Twitter, Google, and the rest have been pouring money into finding an alternative revenue model which does not require addicting and abusing users, but so far I’m not aware that they’ve had much success. It seems the only viable for-profit social media model is to implement addictive design features while conditioning each user to become more predictable, then selling access to manipulate users.

    • smallcircles
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      23 years ago

      Hi @[email protected] nice to see you here :) Your Pro Social Design site is a beauty. I really, really like the way this is set up as pattern library that can be extended, and is also evaluating the quality and effectiveness of the patterns contained within. Excellent work!

    • @[email protected]
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      13 years ago

      Yah the elephant in the room is that you can either have a social network be healthy for its users or have it be profitable. Pick one.