Apathos

Social media algorithms & society

Through gathering data, feeds learn to push our buttons incredibly well. So well in fact that we spend over two hours each day consuming whatever it serves up. These systems relentlessly find content with one single purpose: keep you engaged.

As we've learned, the single focus on engagement favours certain content over others. We've seen our updates from friends and family make way for misinformation, ragebait and wilful manipulation.

While such content benefits bottom lines, what cost does it pose to society? Use of social media fuels polarisation and affects mental wellbeing for young and old. Could we do better?

Craft your own

Apathos is an interactive simulation of social media feeds. As a feed designer, you can control how content is selected for users. Experience in real-time how incentives translate into particular types of content spreading.

How will you design social media feeds? What will you optimize for? Engagement? Diverse content? Posts from friends and family?

Apathos is an open exploration into how social media feeds and manipulation are closely intertwined. It shows we can design different social media. How can we get to social media that enhance rather than extract?

Acknowledgements

This work is funded by the Creative Industries Fund NL and by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) via RESOCIAL project (NWA.1540.21.001).