DISCLAIMER: These prototypes intentionally disregard Instagram business model. These interventions are designed with conscious users in mind, and fit in well in an “alternative frontend” application that substitutes the regular Instagram client. Main goal was to understand and use cognitive mechanisms to users' advantage to reduce addictive behaviours.
If Instagram is the heroin of digital attention, we attempted to design its methadone.
These words might sound too strong but, during our literature review for undertanding social media abuse, we found several scientific articles comparing social media addiction to substance addiction.
In brief, social media addiction is linked to:
Mental problems: body perception issues, FOMO, depression, low self-esteem
Physical health issues: poor posture, eye strain, disrupted sleep patterns
Erosion of genuine relationships: prioritizing virtual personas over meaningful real-life connections
Decreased productivity and concentration difficulties
Grounding the work in the principles of social psychology, I worked on a small team project to redesign Instagram.
Researching literature
Me and my group had first hand experience about the negative effects of using social medias, but we did not want our project to be grounded solely on our views. We proceeded to review relevant scientific literature to better gain an understanding of addictions and specifically social media addiction.
Addiction
While Social Media Addiction is not recognized as an official disorder in the DSM-5 , it shares many characteristics with recognized behavioural addictions. These include:
Compulsive Use: An uncontrollable urge to use social media, often at the expense of other activities
Withdrawal Symptoms: Feelings of anxiety, irritability, or depression when not using social media
Tolerance: The need to spend increasing amounts of time on social media to achieve the same level of satisfaction
Negative Impact: Significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning due to excessive social media use
Features
We also discovered came to the understanding that multiple features present in Instagram are specifically designed to exploit human psychology and brain mechanisms.
The most notable ones are:
Infinite scroll, leveraging unconscious behaviours to keep us on the platform, performed by the removal of stopping cues
Pull-to-refresh, a mechanism that creates an anticipation of new content, similar to the one experienced in gambling
Social Approval Metrics, a feature that provides instant gratification and validation, triggering dopamine release in the brain
Notifications, with their power to capture user's attention and bring them back on the platform
Algorithmic Content Curation, which personalizes the user experience but can also create echo chambers and reinforce addictive behaviours
Redesigning Instagram
WIth this knowledge in mind, we brainstormed. Our goal was not to create something realistically implementable, as it it in Meta's interest not to. Our goal was to show users what a less addictive Instagram looks like. Our proposed list of changes is designed to be part of a modified version of the original app, that keeps the original design language but adds or removes features. A concept for an unofficial alternative frontend.
Overview of proposed changes
Feature
Targeted Mechanism / Purpose
Chronological Feed
Decrease the time users spent on platforms. Counteracts algorithmic
ranking. Reduce political engagement.
No Infinite Scroll
Introduce stopping cues. Introduce friction in continuing usage
No Pull-to-Refresh
Remove anticipation of new content.
Time spent indicator
Increase awareness of time spent.
In-app mirror
Increase self-awareness and possibly trigger self-regulation.
FOMO mode
Reduce anxiety related to missing out on friend's life.
Additional settings
Adds custom content filtering, features toggling and stricter time
limits.
"I'm quitting" mode
Gives users a more structured way to take longer breaks from usage
