4 Policy Brief No. 22 Toda Peace Institute/Alliance for Peacebuilding Policy Recommendations How do we maximize the possibility for social media to empower us to improve social and political goods, and minimize the worst impacts of social media? Recommendations to enable social media to contribute to social and political goods include the following: A. Inspire “Humane Design” Tristan Harris and the staff at the Center for Humane Technology, based in San Francisco, want to move away from technology that extracts attention and erodes society, towards technology that “protects our minds and replenishes society.” As former insiders in the social media industry, they assert the following: Technology that tears apart our common reality and truth, constantly shreds our attention, or causes us to feel isolated makes it impossible to solve the world’s other pressing problems like climate change, poverty, and polarization. No one wants technology like that. Which means we’re all actually on the same team: Team Humanity, to realign technology with humanity’s best interests. (Center for Humane Technology 2018) The Center for Humane Technology is encouraging a “design renaissance” that emphasizes “non-extraction-based design decisions and business models” that might empower people to manage their attention toward activities that benefit the social good, both personal and collective. Unlike social media platforms that have a profit motive to keep users on the platform longer, companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Samsung that make the devices that run social media could design safeguards for human security since their profit model does not depend upon users sharing information online. These corporations can design their products to protect our minds and society, to enhance focus rather than distraction. (Center for Humane Technology 2018) B. Design an “Architecture of Serendipity” A functional democracy requires encountering experiences, facts, opinions, information and ideas different from our own, and then finding common ground and building empathy and understanding based on shared experiences, facts, and beliefs. Current social media platforms reduce user’s exposure to ideas or experiences that challenge their point of view. Social media platforms could design unplanned serendipitous encounters. This “architecture of serendipity” would replace the current algorithms that foster echo chambers and like-minded groups recognizing that such serendipitous encounters improve both social and political goods. (Sunstein 2017) C. Design Platforms that Facilitate Empathy, Dialogue and Deliberation Social media’s contribution to polarization and violence requires a new generation of conflict transformation experts who specialize in social media strategies for dialogue and deliberation. It requires tech companies to consult with experts who specialize in facilitation, dialogue and social cohesion. People in the fields of peacebuilding and conflict transformation, including social movement activists, facilitators, mediators, and