Envisioning New Futures of Positive Social Technology: Beyond Paradigms of Fixing, Protecting, and Preventing

JaeWon Kim, Lindsay Popowski, Anna Fang, Cassidy Pyle, Guo Freeman, Ryan M. Kelly, Angela Y. Lee, Fannie Liu, Angela D. R. Smith, Alexandra To, Amy X. Zhang

Abstract: Social technology research today largely focuses on mitigating the negative impacts of technology and, therefore, often misses the potential of technology to enhance human connections and well-being. However, we see a potential to shift towards a holistic view of social technology's impact on human flourishing. We introduce Positive Social Technology (Positech), a framework that shifts emphasis toward leveraging social technologies to support and augment human flourishing. This workshop is organized around three themes relevant to Positech: 1) "Exploring Relevant and Adjacent Research" to define and widen the Positech scope with insights from related fields, 2) "Projecting the Landscape of Positech" for participants to outline the domain's key aspects and 3) "Envisioning the Future of Positech," anchored around strategic planning towards a sustainable research community. Ultimately, this workshop will serve as a platform to shift the narrative of social technology research towards a more positive, human-centric approach. It will foster research that goes beyond fixing technologies to protect humans from harm, to also pursue enriching human experiences and connections through technology.