The Technology Future We Want: Imagining Positive Futures for Social Media

Recap of the "Imagining Positive Futures for Social Media" workshop.

Every day we see social media going awry: disinformation campaigns, privacy breaches, hate speech, harassment, data extraction, and more. These problems are analyzed in books, articles, lectures, and even memes. We know what we don’t want.

But it is harder to describe what we actually do want for the future of social media. What might healthy and flourishing online communities look like? Should they be big or small, public or private, should they be moderated? How should they be regulated in a global and interconnected world? And who is served (or harmed) by each of these visions? Individuals across the world have different needs, preferences, norms, hopes, jurisdictions, and boundaries. Is it possible to articulate a coherent vision of a future we actually want?

This creative workshop will bring together a wide range of participants to consider the opportunities and risks of online communication, imagine the futures we want, and acknowledge the difficulty (and importance) of such explorations.

This workshop is now at capacity!  

Hosted by the Institute for Rebooting Social Media at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. For additional info, contact: rebootingsocialmedia@cyber.harvard.edu.