A broken gun is better designed than a working gun – Mike Monteiro, Ruined by design
We designed the combustion engine that led to global warming.
We designed the guns that kill school children.
We designed shitty interfaces to protect our private information.
We designed the religions that pitted us against one another.
We designed social networks without any way of dealing with abuse or harassment.
We designed a financial incentives system that would lead Mark Zuckerberg to assert what’s good for the world isn’t necessarily good for Facebook; and lead Jack Dorsey to believe engagement was a more important metric than safety.
The world isn’t broken. Either by action or inaction, through fault or ignorance, we have designed the world to behave exactly as it’s behaving right now.
[Over Facebook hoef ik me minder zorgen te maken dan ik doe. Facebook is voor oude mensen, studenten gebruiken het niet zeggen ze als ik vraag wie Facebook gebruikt. Ik zoek en druk op de knop: Permanently Delete Account. ‘Deleting your account is permanent. When you delete your Facebook account, you won’t be able to retrieve the content or information you’ve shared on Facebook. Your Messenger and all of your messages will also be deleted.’ Ik klik op Continue to Account Deactivation. De melding verschijnt: ‘You have 316 photos, 147 posts and more uploaded to Facebook. If you want to save this information before your account and content is permanently deleted, you can download a copy of your information.’ Dat zijn foto’s van katten. De stappen houden niet op, elke klik produceert een nieuwe knop. Ik moet mijn password weten. ‘You’re about to permanently delete your account. If you’re ready to delete, enter your password and click Delete Account. Once you submit your account for deletion, you have 30 days to reactivate your account and cancel the deletion. After 30 days, the deletion process will begin and you won’t be able to retrieve any of the content or information you have added.’ Ik moet nog een keer bevestigen. Confirm Permanent Account Deletion. ‘Your account is scheduled for permanent deletion.’ Na dertig dagen begint het verwijderproces. Wat betekent dat ‘het verwijderproces begint’? Good design is honest design, zegt Dieter Rams. I cannot be surprised als ik na een jaar gewoon weer kan activeren, zoals altijd. Engagement is a more important metric than honesty. Ik lees hoe Mark Zuckerberg Facebookgebruikers ‘dumb fucks’ noemt. Ik kijk How to build an Atomic Bomb op Youtube en zie rich white boy childs van glijbanen glijden en ben ontzettend klaar. Mike Monteiro schreef Ruined by design omdat hij Victor Papaneks Design for the real world las. ‘It’s angry. And yet it’s full of love for humanity.’]