Abstract
Social technologies increasingly shape how people form relationships, perform identity, and understand belonging. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn operate not simply as neutral connectors, but as sociotechnical systems whose design choices influence social norms and behavior. Engineering decisions about profiles, algorithms, and interaction structures therefore carry social and ethical implications that extend beyond technical success.
The STS research paper examines LinkedIn as a prominent example of how platform design mediates social life. The paper argues that LinkedIn’s technical architecture encourages strategic self‑presentation and continuous performance, shaping users’ professional identities and reinforcing particular norms of success. This analysis treats the platform as an active participant in social construction, rather than a passive tool.
The technical capstone project, Chat Hoolette, engages with similar questions in the context of student social connection. Chat Hoolette is a friend group-matching application, including design choices made to consciously shape social behavior. Instead of emphasizing large networks or public metrics, Chat Hoolette explores how small‑scale structures and limited performance cues can influence the quality of social interaction, aiming to facilitate quality friendship among users.
Together, these projects demonstrate that social applications must be understood holistically. Technical systems both reflect existing social conditions and actively shape user experience. As these projects show, engineering social technologies requires attention not only to what systems do, but to how they shape human interaction and experience. Recognizing and accounting for these impacts is essential when building systems intended for human connection.
