Let’s be honest—most of us have, at some point, picked up our phones to check a single notification and then resurfaced an hour later from an Instagram rabbit hole, wondering what sorcery just occurred. If this sounds familiar, congratulations! You are a victim of affordances—the invisible strings that dictate how we use technology.
What Are Affordances?
Affordances, a concept borrowed from design psychology, refer to the features of an object that suggest how it should be used. A door handle affords pulling, a flat plate on a door affords pushing (unless it’s one of those confusing revolving doors that make you question your existence). In the digital world, affordances are the design elements that nudge, encourage, or downright shove us into interacting with technology in specific ways.
Psychologist James J. Gibson introduced affordance analysis, which examines how an object’s design determines what actions users can take. This highlights the relationship between a user’s capabilities and the technology they interact with. Similarly, script analysis, developed by Madeleine Akrich and expanded by Bruno Latour and Peter-Paul Verbeek, explores how technology subtly directs user behaviour by embedding expectations into its design, encouraging certain actions while discouraging others.
Digital Affordances: Friend or Foe?
Not all affordances are bad. Some make life easier. Google Maps affords seamless navigation (saving countless marriages from “I told you to take a left”). E-books afford portability, letting you switch between Dostoevsky and a guilty-pleasure romcom without judgement. But some affordances are designed to keep us hooked—think of autoplay on YouTube, infinite scrolling on social media, or those pesky “read” receipts that force you into instant-reply mode.
Take social media, for instance. The like button affords validation, the story feature affords habitual daily engagement, and streaks on Snapchat afford compulsive usage. Before you know it, your entire social life is dictated by digital check-ins, rather than actual conversations. These affordances aren’t accidental; they’re designed to maximise time spent on apps—because, let’s face it, your attention is the real product being sold.
The Illusion of Choice: Are We Really in Control?
“But I have self-control,” you say. Sure, and I had self-control when I downloaded a fitness app, only to spend an hour tweaking my avatar instead of working out. The reality is that digital affordances shape our behaviours, often without us realising it.
Consider notifications—tiny dopamine bombs disguised as productivity tools. They afford constant interruption, making it nearly impossible to focus. Or the autoplay feature on Netflix, which affords effortless binge-watching, turning “just one more episode” into an eight-hour crime drama marathon that ends with an existential crisis at 3 AM.
Designing for Digital Wellbeing: Can Tech Fix Itself?
Thankfully, tech isn’t all about digital enslavement. Some affordances are now being designed to promote digital wellbeing. Take Apple’s Screen Time or Android’s Digital Wellbeing tools—features that afford self-regulation by letting you track and limit your usage. Instagram has experimented with hiding like counts to reduce social comparison anxiety. Google’s wind-down mode affords a visual cue (greyscale screen) to remind you to put your phone down and sleep like a functional adult.
And let’s not forget the holy grail of digital wellbeing: the Do Not Disturb mode—a rare affordance that actually encourages disconnection. Yet, how many of us truly use it?
So, What Can We Do?
While companies are slowly integrating responsible affordances, the power still lies with us. Here’s what you can do:
Audit your affordances – Notice what features trigger mindless engagement. Is it endless scrolling, notifications, or the compulsion to check emails at midnight?
Customise settings – Disable autoplay, set app limits, and filter notifications. Your future self will thank you.
Create friction – Place your phone in another room while working. Use a real alarm clock instead of your phone to avoid the morning scroll-trap.
Engage with intention – Instead of letting technology dictate your habits, decide how and when you want to engage with it.
The Final Scroll
Affordances are powerful. They can either shape a mindful, balanced digital life or turn us into zombies scrolling through TikTok at 2 AM. The key is awareness. Next time you reach for your phone and lose an hour in the vortex of digital distractions, ask yourself: Is this tech working for me, or am I working for it? If the latter, it might be time to reclaim control—one notification at a time.
References
Davis, J. L., & Chouinard, J. B. (2016). Theorising affordances: From request to refuse. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 36(4), 241-248.
Verbeek, P. P. (2004). Material morality. van Hinte (ed.), Time in Design. Rotterdam, 10, 198-210.
Related Posts
Let’s be honest—most of us have, at some point, picked up our phones to check a single notification and then resurfaced an hour later from an Instagram rabbit hole, wondering what sorcery just occurred. If this sounds familiar, congratulations! You are a victim of affordances—the invisible strings that dictate how we use technology.
What Are Affordances?
Affordances, a concept borrowed from design psychology, refer to the features of an object that suggest how it should be used. A door handle affords pulling, a flat plate on a door affords pushing (unless it’s one of those confusing revolving doors that make you question your existence). In the digital world, affordances are the design elements that nudge, encourage, or downright shove us into interacting with technology in specific ways.
Psychologist James J. Gibson introduced affordance analysis, which examines how an object’s design determines what actions users can take. This highlights the relationship between a user’s capabilities and the technology they interact with. Similarly, script analysis, developed by Madeleine Akrich and expanded by Bruno Latour and Peter-Paul Verbeek, explores how technology subtly directs user behaviour by embedding expectations into its design, encouraging certain actions while discouraging others.
Digital Affordances: Friend or Foe?
Not all affordances are bad. Some make life easier. Google Maps affords seamless navigation (saving countless marriages from “I told you to take a left”). E-books afford portability, letting you switch between Dostoevsky and a guilty-pleasure romcom without judgement. But some affordances are designed to keep us hooked—think of autoplay on YouTube, infinite scrolling on social media, or those pesky “read” receipts that force you into instant-reply mode.
Take social media, for instance. The like button affords validation, the story feature affords habitual daily engagement, and streaks on Snapchat afford compulsive usage. Before you know it, your entire social life is dictated by digital check-ins, rather than actual conversations. These affordances aren’t accidental; they’re designed to maximise time spent on apps—because, let’s face it, your attention is the real product being sold.
The Illusion of Choice: Are We Really in Control?
“But I have self-control,” you say. Sure, and I had self-control when I downloaded a fitness app, only to spend an hour tweaking my avatar instead of working out. The reality is that digital affordances shape our behaviours, often without us realising it.
Consider notifications—tiny dopamine bombs disguised as productivity tools. They afford constant interruption, making it nearly impossible to focus. Or the autoplay feature on Netflix, which affords effortless binge-watching, turning “just one more episode” into an eight-hour crime drama marathon that ends with an existential crisis at 3 AM.
Designing for Digital Wellbeing: Can Tech Fix Itself?
Thankfully, tech isn’t all about digital enslavement. Some affordances are now being designed to promote digital wellbeing. Take Apple’s Screen Time or Android’s Digital Wellbeing tools—features that afford self-regulation by letting you track and limit your usage. Instagram has experimented with hiding like counts to reduce social comparison anxiety. Google’s wind-down mode affords a visual cue (greyscale screen) to remind you to put your phone down and sleep like a functional adult.
And let’s not forget the holy grail of digital wellbeing: the Do Not Disturb mode—a rare affordance that actually encourages disconnection. Yet, how many of us truly use it?
So, What Can We Do?
While companies are slowly integrating responsible affordances, the power still lies with us. Here’s what you can do:
Audit your affordances – Notice what features trigger mindless engagement. Is it endless scrolling, notifications, or the compulsion to check emails at midnight?
Customise settings – Disable autoplay, set app limits, and filter notifications. Your future self will thank you.
Create friction – Place your phone in another room while working. Use a real alarm clock instead of your phone to avoid the morning scroll-trap.
Engage with intention – Instead of letting technology dictate your habits, decide how and when you want to engage with it.
The Final Scroll
Affordances are powerful. They can either shape a mindful, balanced digital life or turn us into zombies scrolling through TikTok at 2 AM. The key is awareness. Next time you reach for your phone and lose an hour in the vortex of digital distractions, ask yourself: Is this tech working for me, or am I working for it? If the latter, it might be time to reclaim control—one notification at a time.
References
Davis, J. L., & Chouinard, J. B. (2016). Theorising affordances: From request to refuse. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 36(4), 241-248.
Verbeek, P. P. (2004). Material morality. van Hinte (ed.), Time in Design. Rotterdam, 10, 198-210.
Related Posts
Let’s be honest—most of us have, at some point, picked up our phones to check a single notification and then resurfaced an hour later from an Instagram rabbit hole, wondering what sorcery just occurred. If this sounds familiar, congratulations! You are a victim of affordances—the invisible strings that dictate how we use technology.
What Are Affordances?
Affordances, a concept borrowed from design psychology, refer to the features of an object that suggest how it should be used. A door handle affords pulling, a flat plate on a door affords pushing (unless it’s one of those confusing revolving doors that make you question your existence). In the digital world, affordances are the design elements that nudge, encourage, or downright shove us into interacting with technology in specific ways.
Psychologist James J. Gibson introduced affordance analysis, which examines how an object’s design determines what actions users can take. This highlights the relationship between a user’s capabilities and the technology they interact with. Similarly, script analysis, developed by Madeleine Akrich and expanded by Bruno Latour and Peter-Paul Verbeek, explores how technology subtly directs user behaviour by embedding expectations into its design, encouraging certain actions while discouraging others.
Digital Affordances: Friend or Foe?
Not all affordances are bad. Some make life easier. Google Maps affords seamless navigation (saving countless marriages from “I told you to take a left”). E-books afford portability, letting you switch between Dostoevsky and a guilty-pleasure romcom without judgement. But some affordances are designed to keep us hooked—think of autoplay on YouTube, infinite scrolling on social media, or those pesky “read” receipts that force you into instant-reply mode.
Take social media, for instance. The like button affords validation, the story feature affords habitual daily engagement, and streaks on Snapchat afford compulsive usage. Before you know it, your entire social life is dictated by digital check-ins, rather than actual conversations. These affordances aren’t accidental; they’re designed to maximise time spent on apps—because, let’s face it, your attention is the real product being sold.
The Illusion of Choice: Are We Really in Control?
“But I have self-control,” you say. Sure, and I had self-control when I downloaded a fitness app, only to spend an hour tweaking my avatar instead of working out. The reality is that digital affordances shape our behaviours, often without us realising it.
Consider notifications—tiny dopamine bombs disguised as productivity tools. They afford constant interruption, making it nearly impossible to focus. Or the autoplay feature on Netflix, which affords effortless binge-watching, turning “just one more episode” into an eight-hour crime drama marathon that ends with an existential crisis at 3 AM.
Designing for Digital Wellbeing: Can Tech Fix Itself?
Thankfully, tech isn’t all about digital enslavement. Some affordances are now being designed to promote digital wellbeing. Take Apple’s Screen Time or Android’s Digital Wellbeing tools—features that afford self-regulation by letting you track and limit your usage. Instagram has experimented with hiding like counts to reduce social comparison anxiety. Google’s wind-down mode affords a visual cue (greyscale screen) to remind you to put your phone down and sleep like a functional adult.
And let’s not forget the holy grail of digital wellbeing: the Do Not Disturb mode—a rare affordance that actually encourages disconnection. Yet, how many of us truly use it?
So, What Can We Do?
While companies are slowly integrating responsible affordances, the power still lies with us. Here’s what you can do:
Audit your affordances – Notice what features trigger mindless engagement. Is it endless scrolling, notifications, or the compulsion to check emails at midnight?
Customise settings – Disable autoplay, set app limits, and filter notifications. Your future self will thank you.
Create friction – Place your phone in another room while working. Use a real alarm clock instead of your phone to avoid the morning scroll-trap.
Engage with intention – Instead of letting technology dictate your habits, decide how and when you want to engage with it.
The Final Scroll
Affordances are powerful. They can either shape a mindful, balanced digital life or turn us into zombies scrolling through TikTok at 2 AM. The key is awareness. Next time you reach for your phone and lose an hour in the vortex of digital distractions, ask yourself: Is this tech working for me, or am I working for it? If the latter, it might be time to reclaim control—one notification at a time.
References
Davis, J. L., & Chouinard, J. B. (2016). Theorising affordances: From request to refuse. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 36(4), 241-248.
Verbeek, P. P. (2004). Material morality. van Hinte (ed.), Time in Design. Rotterdam, 10, 198-210.
