Persuasive design serves profits, not genuine self-improvement

Evidence

But just who is this “our”? What does persuasive design look like when someone else tries to bring out my “aspirational self,” and does it for profit? Help! — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 414

Categorization

• QUESTION: Odell’s sarcastic ‘Help!’ flags an ironized open question: who gets to define someone’s aspirational self when profit motives drive it?
• XREF: connects to: Persuasive design in social interfaces externalizes decisions users could make themselves — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 592; Ethical persuasion frameworks smuggle in unexamined standards of what counts as good — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 411; Self-branding succeeds for few yet is promoted as a universal fix — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 525 (+6 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Persuasive design in social interfaces externalizes decisions users could make themselves — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 592; Ethical persuasion frameworks smuggle in unexamined standards of what counts as good — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 411; Self-branding succeeds for few yet is promoted as a universal fix — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 525 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Social media design decisions prioritize profit over user benefit or democratic ideals #corroborates (0.92) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 718
• Ethical persuasion frameworks smuggle in unexamined standards of what counts as good #complicates (0.72) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 411