Addressing the Malignant Addictive Design of Social Media: A Call for Change

Addiction Economy Thought for Today - couldn't put this better myself, good article here in Times by Juliet Samuel (sorry paywall)

If anyone is interested in a summary of how they do it and what else is involved check out our article 'What makes social media addictive' here.

https://lnkd.in/gd4Kc45Z

Because worth remembering, it is some apps much more than others that do the addicting and regulating cumulative addictive design techniques is actually possible without any loss of functionality and is a big start to regaining our free will and mental space.

In fact we and many others argue that by undermining our ability to control our use of these apps they are undermining our freedom of thought and action.


"The great machine of capitalism has done its job, refining its products over and over in a competitive race for victory. And it turns out that, more than tobacco, alcohol or gambling, the resulting dopamine hit delivered by commodified social validation, in all its forms, is irresistibly addictive to nearly all humans."

"We need to start recognising and resisting malignant addictive design — default settings that constantly interrupt with pop-up notifications, rankings by our peers, “streaks” of message exchanges, algorithms that radicalise via confirmation bias and so on. It is time to stop wiring these devices into essential, everyday services and start demanding products that squander less of every person’s most precious possession: our time."

https://lnkd.in/gzbd-ChV