How AllSides Designs for Understanding, not Addiction

Americans want to be informed citizens. I lived in Egypt in my 20s, and friends I made there strongly believed the American public is generally kind but ignorant. I strongly object to that trope. 

The Americans I know take their duty to understand complex societal problems seriously. (That the US news is in a bubble of its own that generally does not include the views of non-Americans is worth mentioning, but I digress). They exercise their right to vote and recognize the responsibility that comes along with it to understand what they are voting on. 

But in 2026, staying informed comes with its own hazards. In recent years, even traditional news sources like the New York Times have aligned their user experience to feel more like TikTok than news. And why shouldn’t they? According to Pew Research, three-quarters of US adults under 30 say they get news from social media at least sometimes. 

As the recent New Mexico Consumer Protection Case and California Mental Health/Addiction Case makes clear, we are waking up to the power of addictive tech to subvert our ability to pursue life, liberty and happiness–especially for the youngest among us. Moms’ groups are declaring that smartphones are the new cigarettes. Parents are banding together to sign pledges to “Wait until 8th” for social media. AA-style groups are forming to help teens recover from tech addiction.

AllSides was started in 2012 with a foundational respect and care for the intelligence of our readers. We believe that the people who come to AllSides to seek information are smart and want to be better informed so they can make decisions for themselves. We seek to create an island of sanity where Americans do their best to understand every side of an issue. 

For example, we are in the middle of a project to add a “Media Literacy Mode” layer to AllSides. (We are recruiting high school teachers and librarians to be part of the design team for this project, apply here by April 24th).

It will look something like this:

To do this, the four design principles we employ are the opposite of addictive design. Reading AllSides requires you to use brainpower, it challenges your thinking, it doesn’t seek to keep pace with the 24 hour news cycle and it pushes human connection.

1. Reading AllSides Requires Brainpower

As my dad says, the “best engineer is the lazy engineer.” Our brains are built to conserve energy and want to find the quickest path from A to B. While this is generally a feature and not a bug, we resist learning new things most of all (no hablo español muy bien…still). Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication.

To “access, analyze, evaluate” requires you to ask questions such as “Is this fact, opinion or something else?” and “What values, ideas and biases are overt or implied?” and “How does this make me feel and why?” Those are energy-expensive questions to ask. AllSides seeks to remind you to ask yourselves those questions through how we present information in Media Literacy Mode and the tools and services we provide to clients and schools.

2. AllSides Challenges Your Thinking

AllSides is no sycophant. At AllSides it is part of our practice that whenever someone writes anything, even if it is inherently apolitical, at least one person from another political persuasion reviews it. 

When new employees first start at AllSides the feedback can be jarring, especially if you aren’t used to direct feedback. I love observing as people evolve from their defensive instinct to actually requesting feedback. Our best thinkers know they did the absolute best they could do, but that they are just one brain. Which means they missed something. Letting other people (respectfully) rip their work apart makes it better. 

That’s the power of a diverse team that holds their values tightly, but their ideas loosely. This approach comes through in the way we present information to readers. Rather than signaling, “You’re so smart and we agree with you,” we’re signaling, “We think you are smart, here’s balanced, high quality info. Decide for yourself.”

3. AllSides Doesn’t Ask For Your Attention All the Time

There is a reason the term is “news junkie.” But many people aren’t, or don’t have the time to be, news junkies. They are parents, teachers, average people often working multiple jobs who are ok with catching up on the big issues once a day, maybe even once a week.

 Breaking news is easy to find, but understanding is hard, especially when everything is screaming for your attention. We designed our business model to not run on advertising because we knew that would incentivize us to do the opposite of what promotes understanding. 

Our commitment to understanding, not attention, shows up in lots of ways. If you downloaded our app you will notice you get one push notification per day. If you subscribe to our premium newsletter, The Insight, it comes one time per week. This is by design. We think that is enough to stay informed of, but not addicted to, the news. 

4. AllSides is Designed for Real Connection 

It’s not enough to read the news from multiple perspectives. We develop true understanding when we interact with other humans. 

When I was pregnant with my first child and exhausted from the first trimester, I sent out a school event communication late and got destroyed on the parents' Facebook group. The comments were cold, cutting, and certain. But at the event, the ringleader saw I was pregnant, pulled me into a hug, and completely understood when I explained the delay. All I could think was, 'That's not what you said on Facebook.' 

The problem isn't the screen — it's the text box. Scrolling through comments, we lose the voice, the face, the hesitation, the warmth that makes us human to each other. That's why we've poured so many resources into our Roundtables product — live, face-to-face conversation, even through a screen, restores what text strips away. You can't truly understand someone you've never heard laugh, stumble over a word, or pause before answering.

It is a privilege in this world to have the time and ability to walk slowly, sit in silence, think deeply, reflect or have a long conversation. At AllSides we are trying to design tools that promote understanding and help you be an informed citizen, without losing your agency to addictive design.

Alice Sheehan is the CFO of AllSides.