Circlo Blog

Tag: ethical technology

  • 10 Design Problems Driving Digital Systemic Inequities — and How We Can Solve Them

    Maximizing wellness over engagement for how we interact and consume online.

    How we interact with others and consume content profoundly impacts our mindset, shaping how we perceive both others and ourselves. Engagement networks are designed to enable us to stay informed, interact with others and foster new connections and opportunities. They are also battlegrounds harbouring systemic inequities including misinformation, bots, toxicity and breeding mental illness. The cloned alternatives do not provide any resolution. Can we combine design principles with the science of human behavior to standardize interactions in a way that mimics reality and aligns with the accordance of our individual values and wellbeing?

    This article explores the most pressing forms of digital systemic inequities facing humanity with a call to standardize social interaction design patterns for the betterment of human wellness.

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  • The Illusion of Social Media: Reclaiming Attention in the Age of Distraction

    The Descent into Comparison

    It starts like a game. A blank page, a dream of creating, but then the wall of resistance arrives. Fear and overthinking drown out inspiration. Seeking relief, he turns to Twitter.

    What he finds is not encouragement but intimidation. Algorithms showcase the most popular creators, with millions of followers and polished content. Comparison bias does the rest. Instead of inspiration, insecurity grows. He switches to TikTok, where brief sparks of pleasure turn into overstimulation and depletion. The spiral ends in avoidance, not creation.

    Game over. Pleasure fades. Pain wins.

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  • The Illusion of Design: Turning Technology into a Force for Wellbeing

    When Design Creates Anxiety

    Engagement platforms are meant to support our wellbeing. Yet too often, they unsettle us. A scroll that should offer learning becomes endless and addictive. Notifications flash red, sending signals of danger through our nervous system. Scarcity prompts—“Only 2 remaining!”—turn shopping into stress. Even booking a stay can spiral into pressure, where the fear of missing out outweighs calm judgment. It is what Nielsen Norman Group calls the anxiety-ridden vortex.

    These experiences are not about personal weakness. They are the product of systems designed to maximize engagement rather than nurture balance. And if design can create this cycle of anxiety, it can also help us break free from it.

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