How Social Are Social Media The Dark Patterns In Facebook's Interface
This research addresses privacy issues for social media users by analyzing interface design, though it is incremental as it applies existing HCI methods to a specific platform.
The study investigated Facebook's interface to identify features that impact user privacy, using HCI tools and dark patterns analysis to connect interface elements with concerns from psychological and social sciences.
Many researchers have been concerned with social media and possible negative impacts on the well-being of their audience. With the popularity of social networking sites (SNS) steadily increasing, psychological and social sciences have shown great interest in their effects and consequences on humans. Unfortunately, it appears to be difficult to find correlations between SNS and the results of their works. We, therefore, investigate Facebook using the tools of HCI to find connections between interface features and the concerns raised by these domains. With a nod towards Dark Patterns, we use an empirical design analysis to identify interface interferences that impact users' online privacy. We further discuss how HCI can help to work towards more ethical user interfaces in the future.