Big Tech Takes More Responsibility for Well-Being and Ethical Design

It seems paradoxical that Silicon Valley, the home of an “always-on”, multitasking culture, has become a center for the mindfulness revolution. From Wisdom 2.0, an annual conference that discusses mindfulness in a digital age, to weekly meditation classes at WeWork, techies have realized the correlation between unplugging and improved quality of life.

Leaders at big tech companies have been thinking about the negative impacts of technology for years. Ben Tauber, a former Google product manager that now leads a program to help Silicon Valley leaders deal with depression, said in a NYT article: “There’s a dawning consciousness emerging in Silicon Valley as people recognize that their conventional success isn’t necessarily making the world a better place. The C.E.O.s, inside they’re hurting. They can’t sleep at night.”

And this past week at Google I/O, the company’s new well-being initiative was publicly front and center. While Facebook announced it was investigating its impact on well-being late last year, Google has taken a few baby steps further by releasing tools to help people break bad phone habits.

Where responsibility has typically rested with the user, Google has set a precedent that shifts some of that back to the companies that build and design the sticky interfaces we can’t get enough of. Apps are built to attract and keep attention, but I think we’ll see more companies drawing the line (as they should) and publicizing their design ethics.

And it’s on us to do our part and continue demanding those changes.