My research 

My current research explores how the design of digital technologies can be informed by philosophical insights into human flourishing. I am part of the NL-based Ethics for Socially Disruptive Technologies consortium.

IAS Fellowship

While at IAS, I will work with communication scientists and researchers at the Platform for the Ethics and Politics of Technology to investigate the ethical issues of repurposing persuasive technologies for digital well-being.

Should we repurpose persuasive technologies for digital well-being? 

Persuasive technologies threaten our digital well-being. They do this by undermining our ability to focus, deliberate, and act autonomously, which ethicists view as necessary conditions for leading a flourishing life. Value-sensitive designers have responded to this challenge by suggesting that online platforms should be designed in ways that nudge us towards a better online behaviour. A value-sensitive design approach proposes repurposing persuasive technologies, so these technologies actively promote digital well-being, rather than simply increasing user engagement (scrolling, clicking, swiping). Repurposing persuasive technologies may appear promising, but it is fraught with ethical challenges. Those wishing to enlist persuasive technologies to promote better digital well-being must design in ways that do not violate key values (e.g. autonomy, responsibility, self-determination) or weaken paradigmatic human faculties (e.g. focus, deliberation, choice).