Can software be good for us?

We must face a deep challenge to design software for meaningful interaction and time well spent

In early 2018, Mark Zuckerberg announced that his number one goal for 2018 was to make Facebook “Time Well Spent”.

That was exciting, because five years ago I coined this term. It was in a conversation with Tristan Harris, who’s worked tirelessly since to elaborate the concept, turning it into a movement.

Back in 2013, Tristan and I were worried about the entire tech industry, but News Feed was then (and still is) our best example of what needed to change. And that was before election manipulation, fake news, teen depression & suicide, worries about children’s videos, and so on.

So let’s get practical: how can a company like Facebook be retooled around “meaningful interactions” instead of engagement?

The first step is to understand why it’s hard. Popular articles place blame in certain places: the advertising business model, centralization, tech bro culture, tech-giant monopolies, or just capitalism-as-usual.

But I don’t think it’s that simple. I think that a difficulty with meaningful interactions starts with the nature of software itself. I believe even the most well-intentioned teams, operating in the best…