I just had a realization – maybe we’ve been designing everything wrong.
— Jen (@ednapiranha) January 22, 2016
The other day I came across an article from Anil Dash‘s series Toward Humane Tech.
What emotions do our apps inspire?
Both FOMO (the “Fear of Missing Out”) and the joy of missing out are emotional states that our apps induce in our users. Those of us who create apps need to take responsibility for how we make people feel.
If you don’t know Anil, the only think I need to say about him is that in the footer of one of his sites, thinkup.com, it says “It is nice to be nice”. (But feel free to look up his Wikipedia page!)
The article I mentioned above really resonated with me because of a few reasons.
Firstly, I’m working on an article, something along the lines of how online bots (specifically “digital assistants”) mirror their creators, and what that means for the rest of us. (Stay tuned for that one!)
And secondly, as anyone who uses social media sites, I also sometimes struggle with the effects they have on us.
Someone just followed me, but I don’t really care about what this person has to say. Should I follow them back? I do kind of like having an extra follower…
I’ve been thinking about the same things as Anil is writing about and wondering specifically about how I’d design a social media site that takes how human mind works rather than how to drive “user engagement” at all cost.
Anyway, I’ll have more to say soon, until then, I’ll leave you with Anil’s thoughts and observations!
