What if everything had a randomized button? From echo-chambers to empathy

March, 2020

  • Has Instagram ever shown you the family pictures of some random person from a country you’ve never been to?

  • Has Airbnb ever recommended you a place to stay in a random destination?

  • Has Foodpanda ever sent you a random meal?

“Us” and “Them” — The act of “othering”

If there is one thing that might make the world a better place in 5–10 years from now, it would be an increased level of understanding and tolerance between just about anyone with just about anyone else. In other words, for people to have empathy with others. Few people will argue that the world is a very tolerant place, and few too will argue that more tolerance would be a bad thing. In an age in which everyone seems to be digitally connected, it is strange that we speak in divisive terms of “us” and “them”.

The most commonly understood definition of “empathy” is “standing in someone else’s shoes”. I’d like to stretch this definition: to sharing another person’s experiences and emotions. For empathy to truly manifest, it is important that we’re not only aware of another person’s perspective (e.g. to know that high heels are not comfortable) but that we’ve experienced it for ourselves (e.g to walk in a pair of high heels for a day). Empathy does not only relate to standing in someone else’s shoes — sharing another person’s experience could be anything: eating the food they eat, listening to the music they listen to, watching the shows they watch, walking through the neighborhood they live in, and talking to the people they talk to.

Echo chambers and algorithm bubbles

With the current rate of digitalization of our lives — from the news, images, and videos we consume to the stuff we buy — we will quickly no longer see anything outside of our predetermined bubble. We won’t get to live experiences that “people like us” did not click on or search for, and we will live in a self-reinforcing algorithm-fueled feedback loop. I’m might be painting a black-mirror-esque scenario, but this is not too far from how I and many others already live our lives. I can’t remember the last time I searched for something on Spotify or Youtube, instead, I listen to and watch the content that is recommended. You probably do too — for a large part of your consumption. People are not to blame. It is not our fault that we choose the path of least resistance, and that Facebook and other businesses like it have decided that the best way to please people is to show them more of the same things they seem to be enjoying.

Enjoyable algorithms

You might be thinking “If people are enjoying themselves, doesn’t that mean the algorithms are working? What’s the bother?” The problem is that algorithms are great at making us spend our time — but this does not tell us anything about the quality of our time spent. Who doesn’t recognize the feeling of regret after spending an afternoon going down an algorithm fueled video watching spree? Even Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that spending less time on Facebook is a good thing, and the company has reportedly made changes to its algorithm to decrease the amount of time people spend and to ensure people spend quality time.

Popping the bubble

Understanding, relating to, and communicating with others are essential to being human, and arguably we do not spend enough time on these things. If we would, people might make more informed decisions. Instead, people express their opinions and make judgments on situations that involve others who live wildly different lives from themselves without having any clue of what it means to be them.

If the best way to learn is to see, listen to, and read the experiences of others, how can we make sure that we do not only see things within our echo-chambers? Nations suddenly en-masse changing their social media habits is unlikely to happen, so I suggest integrating a change within. We need to create a path of least resistance to the experiences of “others”: the food they eat, the problems they face, and the media they consume.

What if everything had a randomized button?

Anyone who has ever used Chatroulette (which connects you to a random person over a video call), or wiki-roulette (which takes you to a random Wikipedia page) can testify that there is value in random information and different perspectives. It is often fun to talk to a random stranger or to learn a random bit of information. Could this feature be in every service we use, to give us the different experiences that we need to build empathy? Perhaps some experience randomizers are good business models by themselves. But people have limited space on their phones, and prefer only using a handful of apps. To create a path of least resistance this should be included in all the apps we already use, and not be a separate one.

For example:

  • Instagram — Look at random images

  • Youtube — Watch a random video

  • Facebook — Find a random page, group, or person

  • Airbnb — Book a random place to stay

  • Spotify — Listen to random music

  • Home delivery — Order a random meal

  • Netflix — Watch a random show

  • LinkedIn — Connect with a random professional

  • Uber — Go to a random part of town

  • Paypal — Transfer money to a random person

  • Classpass — Book a random exercise class

  • Anchor — Listen to random podcasts

  • Meetup — Go to a random event

  • Postmates — Order random groceries

Designing great random experiences

There will be issues with putting a randomized button on everything, and experience designers will have to find creative solutions around these issues. For example, you might have a serious food allergy, or you might have an absolute phobia for jazz music. The parameters for an ideal random experience need to be figured out, and designing the ideal random experience will take different forms in different contexts. But that does not mean it can not work. There could be different parameters:

  • Maybe we should be able to control the % of random content added.

  • Maybe just a random recommendation thrown in now and then is enough.

  • Maybe the longer we stay on, the more random our experience gets.

  • Maybe we need to be able to exclude things from the randomization.

  • Maybe we should be able to select a category within which to randomize.

  • Maybe there should be a limit to how often we can use randomization.

Different forms of random on each platform

  • Facebook — Connect to a completely random person, join a random interest group, connect to a random person who speaks English, etc.

  • Airbnb — Book any random place, book any place within a certain city, book any place with a bathtub, etc.

  • Spotify — Play any random song, play any random song played by friends, play any random song within a genre, etc.

  • Foodpanda — Order any random meal, order a random meal from a particular restaurant, order a random meal without X ingredient, order a random meal within X budget, etc.

Beyond the bubble

Having such a feature on everything is probably not THE solution to building empathy at scale. It’s just an idea. I enjoy asking myself questions about what sort of future we want. One of them is “Do we want a future that is fueled by algorithms?” If not, how can we create opportunities to allow people to experience things outside of their echo-chambers? Do you have any good ideas to build empathy at scale?