Circlo Blog

Tag: online wellbeing

  • 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 Connection: A Deep Dive into 9 Design Interactions Affecting Mental Health Online

    The Illusion of Connection: A Deep Dive into 9 Design Interactions Affecting Mental Health Online

    What exactly is it about social media that fuels rising anxiety, depression, and suicide in teens? Can we trace these emotional outcomes back to specific interactions on these platforms? And can we measure the level of toxicity embedded in their design?

    We often hear that social media harms our mental health, but vague warnings aren’t enough. I wanted to understand the how and why. Could we identify the actual design choices behind this crisis—and more importantly, imagine better ones?

    When I couldn’t find the answers, I began my own research. What followed became the first in-depth attempt to map mental distress to common user interactions. This is what I discovered—and where I believe we can go from here.

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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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