SIG Talks: Digital Technologies for Mental Well-being

As part of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Digital Technologies for Mental Well-being, we highlight recent research exploring how ethical design approaches can support mental well-being in digital environments.

A new paper by Caroline Figueroa, Mark de Reuver, Lavinia Marin, and Mani Jaff, published in Ethics and Information Technology, investigates how Value Sensitive Design (VSD) can be used to integrate mental well-being into the design of social media platforms.

Design decisions made by social media developers have a significant impact on users’ mental well-being. However, translating an abstract value such as mental well-being into concrete design features remains a key challenge.

The study shows how value conflicts – for example between authenticity and connection, personalization and autonomy, and control and autonomy – can shape user experiences in ways that may negatively affect well-being.

To address this, the authors develop value hierarchies that translate high-level values into more specific norms and actionable design requirements. A central aspect of this approach is the involvement of young people themselves, in order to better understand how mental well-being is experienced and defined in the context of social media.

This research is particularly timely in light of ongoing societal and policy debates. Several countries are introducing or considering regulations related to youth social media use, while legal and public scrutiny of platform design continues to grow.

Developing approaches that embed mental well-being into digital design is therefore increasingly important. 

The paper is available here.