Technology, Entertainment and Design are in for a Moral Reckoning ... and so are We.

Mark Zuckerberg once famously gave his staff and developers marching orders: “Move fast and break things.” He may not have had our children in mind.??But in the process of “moving fast” the “things” that they “broke” were our teenage daughters.?

A series of studies by the Pew Research Center found that nearly 90% of U.S. teens use social media multiple times a day, with 45% using it “almost constantly.”??Nearly 60% of teens said that they are subjected to some type of cyberbullying and 42% said they experience offensive name-calling.??Other studies found that adolescents who are frequent social media users experience poorer sleep, lower self-esteem, higher levels of anxiety and depression and are more likely to engage in substance abuse or risky sexual behavior than are less frequent users.

The impact of these trends is reflected in a recent U.S. study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that found 57% of teenage girls said they experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. We all know how moody teenagers can be but this is a 20% increase from a decade ago.??Worse yet, there is a 60% increase in the number who seriously considered suicide.??And 27% increase in just one year for the number of girls who said they were forced to have sex.?

Facebook understood these relationships, according to whistleblower Francis Haugen. She shared the company’s own research showing that hateful, divisive, and polarizing contents keep people engaged in their platform. Haugen claimed that the company knew that if it changed the algorithm to be safer, people would spend less time on the site and the company would make less money.

Irresponsible Designs

These irresponsible corporate designs are not unique to Facebook.??Many technology, entertainment, and design (TED) companies prey on our social divisions and psychological vulnerabilities for profit.??While teens and adults are losing sleep and growing depressed, companies design exciting, addictive computer games to keep them engaged.??While guns are now the primary cause of child deaths and teachers report a spike in school violence, entertainment companies continue to generate violent, high body count movies and TV shows.??While trust in our institutions and each other is at an all-time low and our democracy is under threat, social media companies profit from the spread of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate speech.??And while studies clearly show that happiness is based on long-term, supportive relationships, not wealth or fame, ad companies produce slick, hyper-sexualized ads that promote crass materialism and fintech companies offer get rich quick investment schemes.

What We Could be Designing

Perhaps more devastating to our society than the sins of commission are the sins of omission.??The biggest problems we face are the destructive effects of climate change, political divisiveness, racism, deteriorating schools, drug addiction, and millions of Americans trapped by inadequate education, joblessness, poverty and hopelessness.??Some of this harm is due to our addictive, abusive designs.??But much is due to the fact that we have failed to create designs that adequately address these problems. While TED companies are spending billions on designing first-person shooter games, yet another super-hero movie, non-fungible tokens, virtual real estate in the metaverse, and a space tourist industry, many people are crying—and in some cases dying—for improvements in the real world.

Many of us got into technology, entertainment, or design to make the world a more meaningful, more beautiful, better place.??We were inspired and excited by tech leaders who told us their developments would create a historic shift from the powerful to the powerless, make the world more democratic, create thriving communities, and unlock the inherent compassion we have for our fellow human beings.??But now we find that we are inundated by (and sometimes implicated with) designs that are doing great harm and we not helping where it’s needed most.??

We are all Designers

Design is our most powerful human capability and our greatest resource.??Indeed, design is what makes us distinctively human.??The characteristic that makes our species unique—that which defines us and leaves our mark on the world—is not our exceptional intelligence, our language, or our use of tools, but humankind’s ability to use these resources in combination to design objects, processes, policies, institutions, and environments that go beyond our current condition and aspire to a better world.?

So, there is hope.??There are those who use these powerful resources to take on our most challenging problems.??Take, for example, the urban planning agency Happy Cities that designs housing projects for the homeless that explicitly foster supportive relationships within the community.??Or High Tech High in San Diego, a set of schools that build collaborative, supportive relationships among students and between students and teachers organized around design projects that improve their world.??World Central Kitchen has designed a network of chefs, cooks and volunteers who feed millions of people suffering the devastating effects of climate change, natural disasters and war.??And Braver Angels is a grassroots organization that addresses our deep political divisions.?

TED companies should take their cue from these organizations with passion, purpose and values: Slow down. Think deeply. Fix things. Focus on the hard problems.??The ones that make a difference in the world.??The ones that make the world a better place.

A Reckoning?

If we don’t individually and collectively—through our everyday work, our voluntary organizations, and our civic involvement—use technology, entertainment, and design to address our most pressing problems, if we don’t use these powerful resources to focus laser-like on the things in this world that we value most and that are under the greatest threat—our kids, our democracy, our planet, our trust, our happiness—then we could very well face a reckoning of biblical proportions.

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