Design, influence, and social technologies: techniques, impacts, and ethics

  • Authors:

  • Joshua Introne;Karen Levy;Sean Munson;Sean Goggins;Rick Wash;Cecilia Aragon

  • Affiliations:

  • Massachusettes Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA;Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA;University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA;Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA;Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA;University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work Companion
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Our actions and opinions - "what we know and believe, how we behave and make decisions" - are embedded in and shaped by webs of social relationships. Small individual actions that flow within networks can lead to broad systemic dynamics that fundamentally impact how societies function economically, socially, and culturally. Social technology provides a set of affordances that makes it easier for individuals to manage this web of relationships and the information that flows through it. But designers can configure and make use of the same affordances to influence user behavior. As much of the connected world races to adopt social technology, we have a responsibility both to understand its impacts and to develop ethical guidelines for its use, as its impacts could be profound.