Ethical Design of Social Technology

Fernando Montalvo, Michael Miuccio, Grace Waldfogle

OAI: oai:igi-global.com:281747 • DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-6453-0.ch002

Social technology has become ubiquitous in everyday life. Developers of social technologies seek design elements and new technologies, such as machine learning algorithms, aimed at increasing user engagement. Increased user engagement with products or services is sought after by both companies, which benefit from increased sales and customers who desire technology which they are motivated to use. However, increased user engagement also results in increased demand on user attention. High demand on user attention results in problems for social technology users, including decreased task performance, decrements in working memory, increased anxiety, and more. Developers of social technology should take these negative effects on users into account when implementing new features into their products or services. This chapter proposes a framework for the ethical design of social technology, with a specific emphasis on the balance between user engagement and attentional demands on the user.

Human Aspects of Technology Social Sciences and Humanities Human Aspects of Technology Computer Science and Information Technology