Chapter 40 Exercises: Building Your Personal Manifesto

These exercises are designed for synthesis, reflection, and action. Unlike the exercises in earlier chapters, which focused on building conceptual understanding, these are oriented toward producing something — a personal framework, a written position, a decision, or a shared dialogue. Many can be done over time rather than in a single sitting.

Section A: The Personal Audit (Individual)

Exercise 1: The Honest Week

Time: 7 days of data collection + 30 minutes of analysis Purpose: Ground your personal framework in actual data rather than self-perception.

Instructions: Without changing your behavior, spend one full week tracking your digital platform use. Use your device's built-in screen time tracker or a third-party app (Moment, RescueTime, or similar).

At the end of the week, record: - Total hours per platform - Number of opens per day (average) - Time of first daily use and last daily use - The three contexts in which you most often open your phone (e.g., waiting in line, procrastinating, after waking up)

Reflection questions: 1. What surprised you most in this data? 2. Is there a gap between your estimated time and your actual time? How large? 3. What does your pattern of opening times tell you about what triggers your platform use? 4. Which platform shows the largest gap between intended use and actual use?

Write a 300-word reflection analyzing what your data shows about your current relationship with your platforms.

Exercise 2: The Values Alignment Audit

Time: 45–60 minutes Purpose: Identify whether your platform use aligns with your stated values.

Instructions: Complete the following table for each platform you use at least weekly:

The "alignment score" is your subjective rating: 5 = what I got consistently matched what I wanted; 1 = there is almost no relationship between what I wanted and what I got.

After completing the table: 1. Which platform has the highest alignment? What does this tell you about that platform or your use of it? 2. Which platform has the lowest alignment? What does this tell you? 3. For low-alignment platforms: is the problem the platform's design, your habits around it, or a mismatch between what you say you want and what you actually want?

Exercise 3: Vulnerability Pattern Self-Assessment

Time: 30 minutes Purpose: Identify your primary vulnerability patterns.

Instructions: Rate each of the following vulnerability patterns on a scale of 1–5 (1 = rarely applies to me; 5 = this is a core pattern for me).

• FOMO: I often feel anxious that something important is happening that I'm missing when I'm not checking my platforms.
• Social comparison: I often leave a platform session feeling worse about my own life, body, achievements, or relationships than when I started.
• Outrage consumption: I often find myself reading and engaging with content that makes me angry, even when I know this doesn't make me feel better.
• Validation-seeking: I often check platforms specifically to see if my posts have received likes, comments, or other social metrics.
• Avoidance: I often open a platform as a way of not thinking about something else I need to deal with.
• Passive consumption: I often spend time on platforms consuming content I didn't specifically seek out and wouldn't specifically choose.
• Compulsive checking: I often check platforms without having made a deliberate decision to do so, as a reflexive behavior.

Reflection questions: 1. What are your top two or three patterns? 2. Can you identify the specific emotions or situations that trigger each pattern? 3. For your highest-rated pattern: what need is it meeting (even if imperfectly)? What could meet that need more effectively?

Exercise 4: The Pre/Post Emotion Log

Time: 1 week of brief daily tracking Purpose: Build an empirical record of how specific platform sessions affect your mood.

Instructions: For one week, before opening any social media platform, note your current mood (anxious, calm, bored, happy, sad — use any vocabulary that works for you) and what you're hoping to get from this session. After you close the platform, note your mood again.

After one week, review your log: - Are there sessions that consistently improve your mood? What do they have in common? - Are there sessions that consistently worsen your mood? What do they have in common? - Is there a specific time of day, emotional state, or platform that shows the most consistent negative pattern?

Use this data in your Personal Manifesto (Exercise 7).

Exercise 5: The Notification Inventory

Time: 20 minutes Purpose: Audit the attentional demands your devices currently make on you.

Instructions: Go to your phone's notification settings and list every app that is currently authorized to send you notifications. For each, note: - What type of notifications does it send? - How often do you actually act on these notifications vs. dismissing them? - Is there any notification type here that you would genuinely miss if it were turned off?

Turn off every notification that you would not genuinely miss. This is not permanent — you can turn them back on. It is an experiment in designing a lower-interruption environment for two weeks.

After two weeks, note what, if anything, you actually missed. Turn back on only those.

Section B: Writing Your Manifesto (Individual)

Exercise 6: Platform-by-Platform Position Statements

Time: 60–90 minutes Purpose: Articulate a specific, reasoned position on each platform you use.

Instructions: For each platform you use at least occasionally, write a 150–200 word "platform position statement" that includes: - What I value about this platform - What I dislike or find harmful about this platform's design - What I want to use it for going forward - Specific limits or structures I am committing to

These position statements are the building blocks of your Personal Manifesto.

Example format:

Instagram: I value the ability to share my photography and to follow artists whose work I admire. I find the Explore tab and the algorithm's tendency to surface accounts I don't follow — particularly accounts featuring physical comparison content — consistently negative for my mood. Going forward, I am using Instagram to share my own work and to follow a curated list of accounts I have deliberately chosen. I am not using the Explore tab. I am turning off likes display. I am not opening Instagram before noon.

Exercise 7: The Personal Manifesto

Time: 90–120 minutes Purpose: Produce a written, personal policy for your relationship with digital technology.

Instructions: Using the template below, write your Personal Manifesto. This is a document for you, not for an audience. It should be honest, specific, and revisable.

Template:

My Digital Values In 3–5 sentences: what do I actually want from my relationship with digital technology? What does a good relationship with these tools look like for me?

What I've Learned About Myself In 3–5 sentences: what do my audit data tell me about my current patterns? What are my primary vulnerability patterns?

My Platform Policies [One position statement per platform — from Exercise 6]

My Environment Design Choices List 3–5 specific changes to your digital environment you are committing to (e.g., phone not in bedroom, notifications off, grayscale mode during work hours).

My Measurable Intentions List 3–5 specific, time-bounded behavioral targets.

My Monthly Check-in Commitment When, specifically, will you review this document and your data? (Choose an actual date — the first Sunday of each month, for example.)

What I'm Not Doing One or two things you have decided you are NOT going to do — that feel like overreach for your life and values right now.

Keep this document somewhere you can find it. Revise it in one month.

Exercise 8: Letter to a Platform's Design Team

Time: 45–60 minutes Purpose: Articulate what you know about platform design from the position of a user who now understands the mechanics.

Instructions: Choose one platform you use regularly. Write a letter (600–800 words) to that platform's product design team. Your letter should: - Acknowledge one or two design choices you genuinely value - Identify two or three specific design patterns that you believe work against your interests as a user, with reference to the dark pattern taxonomy or other concepts from this book - Make two or three specific, feasible design change requests - Be honest about the structural challenge: you understand that their incentive structure makes some of what you're asking for difficult to implement

This exercise is not about sending the letter (though you may if you choose). It is about practicing the stance of an informed user who holds both the value and the critique simultaneously.

Exercise 9: Before and After

Time: 45 minutes Purpose: Reflect on how your thinking has changed across the course of this book.

Instructions: Think back to your understanding of social media platforms before you began this book. Write a 400–500 word reflection addressing: 1. What did you believe about why platforms work the way they do? 2. What concept or chapter most significantly changed how you think? 3. What do you now see when you use a platform that you didn't see before? 4. Has this knowledge changed your behavior? If not, what would need to be different for it to do so?

Section C: Synthesis and Analysis (Individual and Group)

Exercise 10: The Central Argument in Your Own Words

Time: 30 minutes Purpose: Test your understanding by restating the book's core argument.

Instructions: Write a 300–400 word summary of the book's central argument — as if explaining it to someone who has not read it. Avoid jargon. Be specific about the mechanism (how attention becomes revenue), the design implications (why platforms are designed the way they are), the psychological effects (the neuroscience and dark pattern taxonomy), and the available responses (both individual and collective).

After writing, identify the one thing you found hardest to explain. What does that difficulty tell you about where your understanding is still developing?

Exercise 11: Evaluating a Proposed Solution

Time: 45–60 minutes Purpose: Apply the book's framework to evaluate a specific policy or design proposal.

Instructions: Choose one of the following proposals (or identify a real current proposal from regulatory discussion):

A. Requiring all social media platforms to display weekly usage summaries prominently to users B. Banning algorithmic recommendation for users under 16 C. Requiring platforms to offer a chronological feed as the default option D. Requiring platforms to disclose the training objectives of their recommendation algorithms

For your chosen proposal, write a 500-word analysis addressing: - What specific problem is this proposal addressing? - What does the research base (from this book) suggest about whether it would be effective? - What are its limitations or potential unintended consequences? - What would a more complete solution look like?

Exercise 12: The Scenario Analysis

Time: 45 minutes Purpose: Apply concepts across multiple chapters to analyze a new scenario.

Instructions: Read the following scenario:

A new social media platform, Meridian, launches with the following design choices: no public like counts, no infinite scroll, a default chronological feed, notifications off by default, and a business model based on voluntary paid subscriptions (with a free tier supported by limited, contextual advertising). In its first year, Meridian reaches 2 million users. Its user satisfaction scores are significantly higher than industry average. Its engagement per user (time on platform) is significantly lower. It is struggling to raise its Series B round because VCs are concerned about engagement metrics.

Write a 600–800 word analysis addressing: - What does Meridian's design tell us about the relationship between engagement optimization and user wellbeing? - Why is Meridian struggling with its funding round, and what does this tell us about the structural constraints of the attention economy? - What would need to change — at the regulatory level, the market level, or the cultural level — for Meridian's model to be commercially viable at scale? - What does this scenario suggest about the limits and possibilities of "building it differently"?

Exercise 13: Mapping the Evidence

Time: 60 minutes Purpose: Synthesize the book's evidence base into a structured argument.

Instructions: Create a visual or written "evidence map" that shows: - Central claim: engagement optimization causes measurable harm to a meaningful proportion of users - Supporting evidence from this book (list at least 8 specific research findings, case studies, or documented incidents) - Counterevidence or complicating factors (list at least 3) - Net assessment: given the evidence, what confidence level do you assign to the central claim, and why?

This exercise practices the epistemically humble approach the book advocates: neither dismissing the evidence nor overclaiming.

Exercise 14: Group Discussion — What Would Collective Digital Agency Look Like?

Time: 60–90 minutes (group) Purpose: Develop a concrete, specific vision of collective digital agency in your community or context.

Preparation (individual, before group discussion): Write a 200-word response to: "If you were advising a community organization, school, city government, or advocacy group on how to pursue collective digital agency, what would you recommend as the top three priorities? Why?"

Group discussion questions: 1. What are the most accessible forms of collective action described in Chapter 40? What are the barriers to taking them? 2. In your community or context, who has the most leverage to influence platform behavior? What would it take to mobilize that leverage? 3. What is the relationship between individual digital agency and collective digital agency? Does one enable the other, or are they independent? 4. What would you want to see in federal or state platform regulation? What would you want to avoid? 5. Is there a realistic pathway from where we are now to the system we'd actually want? What would the steps be?

Exercise 15: The Concept That Most Changed You

Time: 30 minutes Purpose: Identify the single concept from this book that most changed your thinking, and articulate why.

Instructions: Identify one concept, research finding, case study, or argument from anywhere in the book's 40 chapters that has most significantly changed how you think. Write a 400–500 word reflection explaining: - What the concept is, in your own words - What you thought or believed before encountering it - How it changed your thinking - Whether and how it has changed your behavior

Section D: Longer Projects

Exercise 16: The 30-Day Intentional Use Experiment

Time: 30 days Purpose: Build an empirical foundation for your personal framework through sustained experimentation.

Instructions: Design and run a 30-day experiment in intentional digital use. Your experiment should: 1. Define your baseline (from Exercise 1) 2. Set 2–3 specific behavioral changes you will implement 3. Define how you will measure success 4. Include weekly check-ins (brief — 10 minutes each) 5. Conclude with a written retrospective

At the end of the 30 days, write a 500–700 word retrospective addressing: what worked, what didn't, what you learned, and what you're carrying forward.

Exercise 17: The Platform Cooperative Research Project

Time: 3–5 hours Purpose: Research the existing landscape of ethical and cooperative platform alternatives.

Instructions: Research and write a 1,000–1,200 word report on one of the following: A. Federated social networks (Mastodon, the ActivityPub ecosystem) — what they are, how they work, their current scale, their limitations B. Platform cooperatives — existing examples, the ownership model, what they get right and where they struggle C. Subscription-based social platforms — examples, user behavior differences, viability challenges D. Publicly-funded or publicly-owned digital infrastructure — existing examples and proposals

Your report should conclude with your assessment: is this model a realistic component of a better digital ecosystem? What would need to change for it to scale?

Exercise 18: Research Summary — One Key Study

Time: 2–3 hours Purpose: Practice engaging with primary research rather than secondary summaries.

Instructions: Using the further reading list in this chapter, or through your own research, find one peer-reviewed study on a topic covered in this book. Read the original study. Write a 600–800 word summary addressing: - What question the researchers were asking - How they studied it (methodology) - What they found - What the study's limitations are (look for the limitations section — every good study has one) - How the findings connect to the arguments in this book - What you would need to see to update your view based on this research

Exercise 19: The Design Redesign

Time: 2–4 hours Purpose: Apply the book's design ethics framework to a concrete redesign task.

Instructions: Choose one specific feature of a platform you use — the notification system, the recommendation feed, the like/reaction system, the infinite scroll, or another specific design element.

Produce a redesign proposal (750–1,000 words, optionally with sketches or wireframes) that: - Describes the current design and its engagement optimization logic - Articulates the user harm or cost the current design creates - Proposes a specific alternative design that serves user interests without destroying the product - Acknowledges the business model tension your redesign creates - Explains why you believe the redesign is worth that tension

Exercise 20: Letter to Your Past Self

Time: 45–60 minutes Purpose: Consolidate your learning through the reflective writing device of addressing your earlier self.

Instructions: Write a letter (500–700 words) to yourself as you were before reading this book. Your letter should: - Not be preachy or condescending to your past self - Be honest about what you didn't know - Share 3–5 specific things you wish you had understood earlier - Acknowledge what your past behavior was understandable and not simply ignorant - End with the thing you most want your past self to carry forward into the present

Section E: Reflection and Dialogue

Exercise 21: The Conversation You Need to Have

Time: Variable Purpose: Practice sharing your knowledge without evangelism.

Instructions: Identify one person in your life — a friend, family member, partner, colleague — who you believe would benefit from understanding some of what this book covers, and who has not read it.

Have one conversation with that person about one concept from this book. The constraints: - Do not lecture. Ask more than you tell. - Start from their experience, not from the research. - Be honest about what you don't know. - Be honest about your own complicated relationship with platforms.

After the conversation, write a 200-word reflection: How did it go? What did you learn from their response? How did your own understanding shift in the conversation?

Exercise 22: The Platform You Love, Honestly

Time: 30 minutes Purpose: Practice holding both the genuine value and the genuine critique of a platform simultaneously.

Instructions: Choose the platform you get the most genuine value from. Write a 300–400 word honest assessment that: - Names the genuine, specific value you get from it - Acknowledges the specific design mechanisms that make it engaging (variable reward, social validation loops, algorithmic recommendation, etc.) - Distinguishes between the value you get and the engagement mechanisms that deliver it - Takes a final position: is this platform, on balance, a net positive for your life? Why?

The goal is not to conclude that you should stop using it. The goal is to be honest about what it is and what you're choosing when you use it.

Exercise 23: What You Won't Do

Time: 20 minutes Purpose: Articulate the limits of your personal framework.

Instructions: Write a brief (200–300 word) reflection on the things you have decided you are NOT going to do, and why. For example: you are not going to delete all social media. You are not going to adopt strict daily time limits. You are not going to stop using the For You page.

These are not failures. They are honest positions about your values and your life. Articulating them explicitly prevents them from operating as guilty exceptions to a framework that doesn't actually fit you. They are part of the framework.

Exercise 24: The Group Manifesto

Time: 90 minutes (group) Purpose: Negotiate a shared set of values and practices within a group context.

Best suited for: Classroom, book club, team, family, or other group with shared digital context.

Instructions: As a group, work through the following questions and produce a one-page "Group Digital Values Statement" that the group genuinely endorses:

1. What do we, as a group, value about digital technology?
2. What specific design patterns do we find most harmful or concerning?
3. What practices do we want to adopt in our shared digital spaces (meetings, group chats, social media)?
4. What individual practices do we want to support in each other?
5. How will we check in on these commitments over time?

The statement should be achievable and genuine — not an aspirational document that no one will actually follow.

Exercise 25: The Review You Would Write

Time: 45 minutes Purpose: Synthesize your overall assessment of the book's arguments.

Instructions: Write a 500–600 word review of this book as if you were writing for a thoughtful general-interest publication — not a fan review, not a dismissal, but a genuine critical assessment. Your review should: - Describe what the book argues - Identify what it gets right (with specific evidence) - Identify where you find the argument weakest or most uncertain - Take a final position on whether the book's overall argument holds - Recommend it (or not) to a specific type of reader, with an explanation

The goal of this exercise is not to perform gratitude or criticism — it is to take the book's arguments seriously enough to evaluate them.

End of Chapter 40 Exercises