Translating Well-being Values into Design Features of Social Media Platforms: A Value Sensitive Design approach

Mental health problems are on the rise among adolescents and young adults, and growing evidence points to social media platforms as a potential influence. Design decisions made by platform developers shape the digital environments and online daily interactions and may crucially impact users’ mental well-being. However, it is challenging to translate abstract values such as “well-being” or “mental health” into concrete norms and design features in the context of social media. In this study, we explore the potential of using a value sensitive design approach towards redesigning a social media environment that promotes mental well-being. Using the three iterative phases of the approach, we interviewed social media experts and held a focus group with adolescent users. We used thematic analysis to analyze the results and created a values hierarchy that translates abstract values related to well-being into norms and concrete design requirements. This analysis revealed 13 values at stake related to mental wellbeing in the context of social media. Results reveal that mental well-being is negatively impacted by a lack of fulfilling values such as authenticity and connection, personalization and autonomy, and control and autonomy. These experiences are associated with design features such as notifications, algorithmic recommendations, likes, comments, and news feeds. The findings show the pivotal role of design decisions made by social media platforms developers in shaping user well-being. We show how a value-sensitive design approach, in which young users themselves and other stakeholders are involved, can enable the integration of key values into technological development.