Social media design is finally facing the reckoning it deserves

Social media companies have faced backlash after backlash over the last few years, but they've always insisted the same thing: that their products are neutral tools. We're not manipulators, they insist. We're connectors. Honest!

But that illusion has been well and truly shattered this week. An LA jury has found both Meta and YouTube liable for designing addictive products that harmed a young user, marking the first successful case of its kind. And potentially, hopefully, the beginning of a shift in how we think about digital interfaces – a shift that could change UX design forever.

Indeed, it's striking that that, rather than simply content moderation or free speech, the case is ultimately about design. For too long, the mechanics of social media (endless scroll, autoplay, algorithmic recommendations) have been treated as mere benign UX decisions, when they are, of course, the product of a sophisticated attention economy. Or, as one lawyer in the case put it, "the engineering of addiction".

For a long time, the addictiveness of social media has been compared to that of drugs like tobacco. And the comparison between Big Tech and Big Tobacco is starting to look more pertinent. In the case, it was argued that, just like cigarettes, social platforms are engineered to be addictive while the risks are publicly downplayed. And now, juries are starting to agree.

Whistleblowers have exclaimed for a long time that companies like Meta understand the psychological impact of their platforms, especially on young people. Indeed, the testimony included evidence that Mark Zuckerberg overruled 18 wellbeing experts to keep beauty filters on Instagram. But now, finally, it seems this tension is colliding with the legal system.

For UX designers, this could hit close to home. The industry has long celebrated metrics like engagement and retention, with these numbers driving design decisions. But if those astronomical metrics are also increasingly becoming evidence of harm, what comes next?

From a legal perspective, we might see regulation accelerate. Governments around the world are already circling, with proposed age restrictions and duty-of-care laws. In the UK, we've already seen age verification become mandatory when viewing adult content. Could this become the norm for joining social media too?

But perhaps we'll also see a cultural shift within design itself. For decades, designers have been taught to reduce friction, make interactions seamless and keep users coming back. But what if the ethical interface is the one what that does the opposite. It'll be fascinating to see if we end up with a new wave of interfaces designed to encourage users to leave. Judging by the responses of creatives when we recently asked how they really feel about social media, that might be a welcome change.