My personal belief is that designers of equipment and interfaces have a moral obligation to present the operation of the equipment in as simplistic and non-mani

My personal belief is that designers of equipment and interfaces have a moral obligation to present the operation of the equipment in as simplistic and non-manipulative a manner as possible. Yes, there are some social/mental benefits to lying to people. It's a very nuanced and complex topic, however, and I seriously doubt the people who make these things are thinking through all the ramifications. Instead I think they're just making stuff that causes the least amount of complaining. But think about the endgame here. Do we really want semi-intelligent computers shading information in such a way to make us happier? Facebook already is doing its damnedest to keep all of us from insulting each other accidentally, thereby losing online "friendships". It's in Facebook's best interest that more people use the site and enjoy it. But it's in _my_ best interest to meet and socialize with people who may have widely divergent viewpoints -- even if it means stepping on some toes now and then. Ever wonder why the world is more and more becoming an echo chamber for little niches of belief systems? Want more of that? Society's interest to self-correct, to have difficult conversations. It's in manufacturer's interests to create things that make people happy. These interests are not aligned. More troublesome, the more we get what we want, the worse our self-correcting feedback loops breakdown. Not a good thing.