Community Contribution Formal Feedback!
Default Settings Being Used Against Users
Technology is always in a state of motion, with many different goals in mind, but one that stands out the most: keeping people engaged. The intention of keeping people online and using platforms may be to have them connected to their community, PLNs, and the rest of the world. Although, now, if you spend any time on a social media platform and really question what you are looking at, the platform’s intentions are clear: they are trying to make as much money as possible. Whether through literal subscriptions (like Instagram Plus or Snapchat+), an overwhelming amount of ads (YouTube or Pinterest), or by collecting your data (any platform that asks you to agree to terms and conditions or the use of cookies). These features are all types of default settings; you cannot escape them unless you pay (either with your money or your information), and they have all begun to feel quite ubiquitous (Fadell, 2015). This term is sometimes referred to as ‘feature creep,’ which has been plaguing many online platforms because they all want to steal attention from other sites (Dovetail, 2024).
While I was taking a break from writing this, I went on Instagram and got this pop-up on my main page. Instagram is claiming that I am not ‘credible’ enough without paying to be verified, insinuating that I can’t have online credibility without signing up for a monthly subscription, even though they don’t know my intentions with their app.
Notifications Distracting from the Point
Another design choice that I have been noticing on social platforms has been the sea of notifications they send you. When you download an app, you are asked if you want to receive notifications. The app has default notification settings that may not align with how you intend to use the platform. For instance, I recently downloaded and created a Substack account. I made the account to join a book club to expand my PLN and find books to read, but ever since I’ve been getting notifications about content I may like to see based on my previous interactions on the site. Additionally, I made my account very late at night, and that was the only time of day I would get these messages, so I had to manually turn off marketed notifications. While doing this, I realized that Substack was sending me emails about this promotion as well, adding another step to avoid this default feature: going through my spam mail.
Emails, Emails, Emails
Even though the emails that hit your inbox are usually ones you solicit, it can get to be quite overwhelming. The combination of newsletters, subscriptions, and spam can really drown out the important messages, which can take over your experience and even sometimes lead you to making a new account altogether. The design choice of sending promotional emails to get people to engage has sparked a need for people to create a whole other account, commonly referred to as a ‘spam email,’ that you use for platforms that you know, based on previous experiences, will send you many meaningless emails. Following Norman’s concept of perceived affordances (Bucher & Helmond, 2018), creating a new account has become the more visible option over clearing a full inbox.
Even though I’ve made myself a spam email, I still somehow have over 3,000 unread emails in my primary inbox, but because of the way the platform is designed, those will not go away until I manage them one by one. Which feels like an incredibly daunting task that will most likely be put off for a long time because I’ve been using email on a daily basis as I continue to nurture my PLN.
I’d like to thank Julia, Blake, Jack, Ravi, Mumen & Anushah for their comments on my original post that helped in the revising and reworking of this Community Contribution.
References
Bucher, T., & Helmond, A. (2018). The affordances of social media platforms. In J. Burgess, A. Marwick, & T. Poell (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of social media (pp. 233-253). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473984066.n14
Dovetail. (2024, April 17). What is feature creep, and how can you avoid it? https://dovetail.com/product-development/what-is-feature-creep/
Fadell, T. (2015, June 3). The first secret of design is . . . noticing [Video]. TED Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/tony_fadell_the_first_secret_of_design_is_noticing
Jones, H. (2009). If you only do one thing this week . . . clear your inbox. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2009/sep/28/clear-your-inbox