What Went Wrong: A Design Oriented Response to Techno-Pessimism in Social Media

Abstract

This work attempts to rescue the medium of social media from the condemnation it has received by techno-pessimism, instead redirecting the criticism at particular design decisions that have given rise to the problems articulated. It puts forth alternative design choices that would alleviate the critics' concerns. Specifically, it categorizes a wide set of arguments into three, according to the design features from which they originate—notification settings, structure of posts, and engagement-based optimization algorithms. For each of these categories, it explores and evidences the claims made against it. Thereafter, it demonstrates the connection between the criticism and the given design feature is and provides suggestions for alternative design features. Later, it anticipates counter arguments in three groups: system-wide arguments, general arguments that pertain to multiple claims, and singular arguments. Following a response to these challenges, it offers a discussion of the wider implications of this thesis.